The spotlight will be on Westpac shares after the lender surprised the market this morning with the unexpected resignation of chief executive Gail Kelly.

What you need2know:

• SPI futures down 6 pts at 5482

• AUD at 87.13 US cents

• In late trade, S&P 500 -0.1%, Dow -0.1%, Nasdaq +0.3%

• In Europe, Euro Stoxx 50 -1.9%, FTSE -0.3%, CAC -1.5%, DAX -1.7%

• Spot gold slips $US4.14 to $US1160.19 an ounce

• Brent oil down 84 US cents to $US80.83 per barrel

What’s on today

Australia labour market data, RBA economics assistant governor Christopher Kent speech, G20 finance ministers meet; China monthly data for retail sales, production and investment; US federal budget.

Stocks to watch

Results from: Optus, Graincorp.

AGM's hosted by: BlueScope Steel, Ramsay Health, Sims Metal, REA Group.

CIMB has cut Transfield Services to “reduce” and slashed its target price to $1.25 from $1.85 a share after removing a bid premium.

Currencies

Westpac is maintaining a call that AUD/USD will climb back by year’s end but due to the recent sharp downward lurch, lowered its target “end year” level from US90¢ to US88¢. After a period of stability in early 2015, Westpac expects it to climb back to around US92¢ by the end of 2015.

Britain’s pound slouched towards recent 14-month lows against the US dollar as investors pushed back rate-hike expectations to the fourth quarter of 2015 after the Bank of England’s latest inflation report.

The Bank of England has fired its chief foreign exchange dealer after an investigation criticised his handling of suspicious market practices.

Commodities

Copper prices held steady on Wednesday, locked in a narrow trading range as lacklustre demand and expectations of more supplies next year capped gains. Copper has stayed between $US6500 and $US6800 since mid-September and some analysts expect prices to weaken towards the end of the year.

Global demand for oil from OPEC next year will be far below its current output level because of the US shale boom, the group said, as its top producer, Saudi Arabia, kept silent on whether it will cut output to remove surplus oil from the market.

United States

US stocks were nearly even on Wednesday afternoon, pausing after a series of record highs in the Dow and S&P 500, while financial shares lost ground after global regulators fined five major banks. Energy shares also dipped along with oil prices. Shares of Exxon Mobil were down 0.9 per cent.

Dow Chemical raised its asset sale target by as much as 42 per cent to $US8.5 billion and increased its share buyback plan by $US5 billion, as it looks to thwart hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb's push to split the company.
The increased buyback plan brings Dow's total share repurchase program to $US9.5 billion.

The vaunted list of partners at Goldman Sachs had 78 names added to it on Wednesday. The firm chose slightly more new partners than it did in 2012, the last time a new class of partners was selected, but significantly fewer than the 111 picked in 2010.

Europe

European shares retreated on Wednesday after two days of gains, with utilities slipping after some company earnings and financials hit by global regulators moving to fine five banks for failings in currency trading.

The utilities index fell 2.4 per cent, the biggest sectoral decliner, led by a 5.7 per cent drop in Italy’s Enel after it lowered its debt-reduction target for 2014 and reported a drop in nine-month core earnings.

Actavis is in talks to buy Allergan for at least $US60 billion in a deal that could culminate this month, Bloomberg reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. The two companies are trying to narrow a gap of about $US3 billion between what Actavis wants to pay and what Allergan is asking for, Bloomberg reported.

What happened yesterday

The local sharemarket suffered major losses on Wednesday, led by a hefty selloff in the mining sector and the big banks. Poor consumer confidence figures and a weak sales report from Myer Holdings further soured the mood.

The All Ordinaries Index fell 0.97 per cent to 5440.6 while the S&P/ASX 200 Index dropped 1.03 per cent to 5460.5.

“You’ve got a lot of weight coming out of the banks, with three of the big four going ex-dividend,” said Luke McElwaine, senior dealer at RBS Morgans. “But the worst performers have been the materials sector on the back of the falling iron ore price. BHP [Billiton] is down, Rio [Tinto] is down. That’s the biggest weight as a whole on the market.”