WORLD FINANCE UPDATE:
The Australian dollar is soaring towards 77 US cents amid an oil price rally.
At 0700 AEST on Wednesday, the local unit was trading at 76.83 US cents, up from 76.41 cents on Tuesday.
And the Australian share market looks set to open higher after Wall Street gained, led by
surging energy shares buttressed by rising oil prices, and as investors scooped up equities at the start of earnings season.
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At 0645 AEST on Wednesday, the share price index was up 36 points at 4,987.
ELSEWHERE:
WASHINGTON - The International Monetary Fund has warned of the risk of political isolationism, notably Britain's possible exit from the European Union, and growing economic inequality as it cut its global growth forecast for the fourth time in a year.
LONDON - Saudi Arabia suffered another credit ratings downgrade on Tuesday after Fitch lowered its view on the oil-rich kingdom in light of the fall in energy prices.
WASHINGTON - The federal government's budget deficit rose sharply in March, pushing the deficit for the first six months of this budget year above the same period a year ago.
STOCKHOLM - The Swedish music steaming service Spotify plans to hire thousands in coming years, but Stockholm won't get the new jobs unless it improves current housing, education and tax laws, its founders say.
LONDON - A massive rise in earnings from streaming services helped reverse almost 20 years of declining global music revenues last year as money from digital formats overtook physical sales for the first time.
WASHINGTON - Uber Technologies has released its first ever transparency report detailing the information requested by not only US law enforcement agencies, but also by regulators.
SAN FRANCISCO - Facebook says it'll allow developers to build chatbots inside its Messenger app to enable users to communicate with businesses directly in the company's latest effort to dominate enterprise transactions and customer service.
