Trade doesn't add up

The Browns' move with Charlie Frye this week really gets a person to thinking.

Especially since the Browns are trying to win.

There is something to the concept of cutting your losses and moving on, realizing that Frye was not the long-term solution and his play so abysmal in the season opener that the move had to be made.

Ask General Manager Phil Savage privately, and surely this is what he'd say.

There is validity to that way of thinking, of course.

But some things about the move just don't add up, and the main question that can't be answered is why this move was not made three weeks ago, three months ago or soon after the draft.

To hear the scuttlebutt, the Browns were aware that new coordinator Rob Chudzinski was not terribly sold on Frye coming out of spring practices.

Yet the Browns stuck with Frye and Derek Anderson and steadfastly refused to consider allowing Brady Quinn to play early.

Then consider that the Browns spent an entire offseason whispering that they wanted Anderson to start, and it's evident Frye was in a near-impossible situation to succeed.

Now they're left saying that a sixth-round pick for Frye is ''value'' and that this trade was in the works for some time and was not a panic move.

Hmmm.

On the one hand, the team says that a second-day draft pick is a crapshoot and 50-50 proposition, at best. Then when a trade is completed, that second-day pick is ''value.''

The team says that the first game was just one of 16. Then after one bad game they trade the quarterback whom they had named the starter.

The team says there's a plan in place to win. Then they say the most important thing this season is to develop the rookie quarterback.

The Browns discuss privately after Frye's first preseason that he is the team's future. Then the same people trade him after he gets 22 minutes to prove himself in his third season.

Open: Market up nearly 0.7pc in early trading

The New Zealand sharemarket was up nearly 0.7 per cent in the first few minutes of trading today, following a strong rebound overnight in US stocks.

Around five minutes after the market's 10am opening in this country, the benchmark NZSX-50 index was up 27.82 points to 4111.98.

In the US overnight the Nasdaq had its best day in more than a year, as investors snapped up beaten down technology shares, while the energy sector benefited from a surge in oil prices.

A letter from Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, in which he said the Fed was "prepared to act as needed" to ensure credit market troubles did not adversely affect the economy, added to investor speculation for a much hoped-for interest rate cut.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 1.9 per cent at 13,289.29. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 2.19 per cent at 1463.76. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 2.5 per cent, at 2563.16.

Today's strong start on the New Zealand sharemarket follows a 0.4 per cent fall yesterday, which was an improvement on a fall of 1 per cent earlier in the day.

Port of Tauranga put on 17c early today to 705 after reporting an annual net profit up 22.4 per cent to $38 million.

Top stock Telecom was up 6c to 428, having lifted 7c yesterday following a draft Commerce Commission ruling on the price of "unbundled" bitstream services.

GPG was up 8c to 203 early today, on top of a 5c gain yesterday which came after the company reported a 185 per cent increase in half-year net profit to £94 million ($NZ273.7 million), with a slight improvement in profit from thread maker Coats.

Contact Energy was regaining some of yesterday's lost ground, up 9c early to 942, reversing a 20c drop yesterday which came after the company reported a 14 per cent fall in profit on Tuesday.

Among other early risers today were Air New Zealand up 3c to 202, Cavalier 10c to 315, Fisher & Paykel Appliances 3c to 375, F&P Healthcare 5c to 342, Hellaby 5c to 270, and Hallenstein Glasson 8c to 464.

Also rising were Sky City 3c to 464, Sky TV 7c to 562, Trustpower 5c to 821 and The Warehouse 2c to 558.

The few shares to fall early included Auckland International Airport down 2c to 306, Freightways 1c to 394, and Mainfreight 1c to 709.