WORLD FINANCE UPDATE:
The Australian dollar has recovered from a three-month low after the Reserve Bank hinted at further rate cuts.
At 0700 AEST on Wednesday, the local unit was trading at 71.83 US cents, up from 71.64 cents on Tuesday.
And the Australian share market looks set to open sharply higher after Wall Street surged more than one per cent as investors came to terms with the possibility of a Federal Reserve interest rate rise.
At 0645 AEST on Wednesday, the share price index was up 78 points at 5,374.
ELSEWHERE:
WASHINGTON - Americans ramped up their purchases of new homes in April to the highest level since January 2008, evidence of a strong start to the spring buying season.
NEW YORK - Monsanto has rejected Bayer's $US62 billion ($A86.33 billion) takeover bid, calling it "incomplete and financially inadequate".
PARIS - France's economy is not recovering quickly enough to cut unemployment and debt significantly, and will not do so without further reforms, the International Monetary Fund says, despite slightly raising its growth estimates.
PARIS - French investigators are raiding Google's Paris headquarters as part of a probe over tax payments, a source close to the finance ministry has told Reuters.
PARIS - French oil and gas company Total has warned that strikes that have forced the shutdown of two of its refineries, with two more in the process of shutting down, could make it reconsider investments in its French plants.
STOCKHOLM - Spotify's revenues rose 80 per cent in 2015 as it gained more subscribers for its music streaming service, but heavy spending on product development and international expansion meant a bigger operating loss.
SAN FRANCISCO - Volkswagen AG has made substantial progress toward reaching a final settlement by late June with car owners and the US government over the German automaker's cheating on diesel emissions tests, a federal judge says.
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