What you need2know:

•  SPI futures down 13pts at 5910

•  AUD at 78.21 US cents, 93.63 Japanese yen, 69.97 Euro cents and 50.90 British pence

•  In late trade, S&P 500 -0.4%, Dow -0.5%, Nasdaq -0.6%

• In Europe, Stoxx 50 -1.2%, FTSE -0.7%, CAC -1%, DAX -1.1%

• Spot gold down $US3.17 or 0.26% to $US1203.66 an ounce

•  Brent oil up $US1.52 or 2.55% to $US61.06 per barrel

What's on today

Australian Bureau of Statistics releases its Q4 gross domestic product report at 11:30am AEDT, Aig Performance of Services index, Bank of Canada monetary policy decision, US ADP employment report, US Federal Reserve Beige Book.

Stocks to watch

The following stocks will trade ex dividend today: Ashley Services, Austock, Beach Energy, CVC, Century Australia Investments, Coventry Group, Energy Developments, HRL Holdings, Independence Group, Mantra Group, Pacific Energy, Pact Group Holdings, Pro Medicus, Pulse Health, QBE Insurance Group, Rio Tinto, SAI Global, SpeedCast International, Watpac, Wellcom Group, Wide Bay Australia, Nib holdings.

Deutsche Bank has a "buy" rating on Orica but has cut its target price to $26.25 a share, saying in a broker's note that it saw "the completion of the sale of the Chemicals business to Blackstone for $750m (net $620-650m) and $400m share buyback program as positive".

UBS has a "buy" rating on Macquarie Group and a revised price target of $79, up from the previous $64.

Currencies

Any effort to add rules against currency cheating in a 12-nation Pacific trade pact would mean the end of negotiations, a senior Japanese negotiator said on Tuesday. Some US lawmakers are pushing for a currency chapter in the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Barclays set aside an extra £750 million to cover the cost of settling the probe into alleged currency rigging and posted a 32 per cent drop in full-year pretax profit at its investment bank.

Denmark's foreign currency reserves rose to a record in February after the central bank dumped kroner on the market to beat back speculators and defend the nation's euro peg.

Commodities

Ore with 62 per cent content delivered to Qingdao, China, fell 0.9 per cent to $US62.24 a dry metric ton on Tuesday, according to data from Metal Bulletin Ltd. It sank on February 9 to $US61.20, the lowest on record dating back to May 2009.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange closed down 1.4 per cent at $US5822 a tonne, after ending little changed in the previous session when it struck its highest since January 13 at $US5960.

Nickel ended 1.3 per cent down at $US13,675 a tonne after sinking to a session low of $US13,610, the weakest since January 10, 2014. "There is support (for nickel) around current levels, but the odds are that we likely will push lower given the intensity of the current downtrend line," analyst Edward Meir at broker INTL FCStone said in a note.

United States

US stocks are lower after a weak auto sales report pulled the Dow and S&P back from their latest records and the Nasdaq dipped below 5000 the day after scaling the milestone level for the first time in 15 years.

The Nasdaq decline was led by Microsoft while Visa weighed most on the Dow. Seagate Technology and Micron Technology were the worst performers in the S&P 500.

For the second year in a row, tough winter weather slowed US vehicle sales in February, with several major auto makers missing analysts' projections and dampening bullish expectations.

US-listed Fiat Chrysler shares fell 3.7 per cent to $US15.24 while Ford Motor declined 2.8 per cent to $US16.10. GM dropped 0.23 per cent to $US37.51.

Europe

European stock markets slipped from multi-year highs on Tuesday, pegged back by falls in French environment company Veolia and British bank Barclays. Traders said the pullback was relatively minor, given a strong run since the start of 2015 that has seen a major regional index rise 13 per cent.

Better-than-expected German retail sales data also kept the German stock market near record highs.

A Goldman Sachs rating cut sent the shares of telecoms group Numericable down 4.3 per cent. Steel pipe maker Vallourec rose 4 per cent after investment bank Macquarie said the company could be a bid target. Vallourec declined to comment.

What happened yesterday

Local shares ended in the red as the surprise decision by the RBA to keep rates on hold led to a sell-off in higher-yielding stocks such as the big banks and Telstra, dashing hopes for a finish above 6000.