WORLD FINANCE UPDATE:
Growing expectations of a rate cut next week have knocked the Australian dollar back below 76 US cents.
At 0630 AEDT on Wednesday, the local currency was trading at 76.12 US cents, down from 76.32 cents on Tuesday.
And the Australian share market looks set to open lower after falls on Wall Street where healthcare and industrial stocks retreated.
At 0645 AEDT on Wednesday, the June share price index futures contract was down 31 points at 5,855.
ELSEWHERE:
FRANKFURT - German unemployment has fallen in March to the lowest level since the country reunited in 1990 as the recovery in Europe's biggest economy continues to pick up speed, data shows.
BRUSSELS - Deflation in the eurozone eased in March, official data showed Tuesday, reducing concerns that the European economy faces a dangerous spiral after four straight months of falling consumer prices.
WASHINGTON - An improving job market has driven US consumer confidence higher.
WASHINGTON - US home prices have risen 4.6 per cent year-on-year but the gains continue to be held back by marginal wage increases, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller report.
MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin says Russia will extend the current gas deal with Ukraine by another three months, hours before it was due to expire.
HELSINKI - Norway says it intends to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank as a prospective founding member to promote closer ties to the Asia-Pacific region, a move that could help the country's frozen relations with China thaw.
REYKJAVIK, - Iceland's government says it will consider a revolutionary monetary proposal removing the power of commercial banks to create money and handing it to the central bank.
OMAHA, Nebraska - Warren Buffett's company has added two small Virginia newspapers to its collection of more than two dozen small and medium-sized newspapers.
NEW YORK - The first live auction from a collaboration between Sotheby's and online giant eBay was set for Wednesday, bringing together both in-person and virtual bidders.
Share
