The Australian market is poised to open lower later this morning, following falls on international markets overnight as oil prices struggled to regain recent losses and concern over global crude demand.

The December SPI futures contract is down 38 points at 5,138.

In local economic news today, the Reserve Bank of Australia releases the minutes of its monthly board meeting, while RBA assistant governor (financial markets) Guy Debelle and Financial System Inquiry chairman David Murray are slated to speak at the Australasian Finance and Banking Conference in Sydney.

Meanwhile, the ANZ-Roy Morgan weekly consumer confidence survey is due out.

In equities news, Treasury Wine Estates holds its annual general meeting in Melbourne.

Key numbers:

• SPI down 37 points at 5140
• AUD at 82.18 US cents
• Dow Jones -0.52%, S&P500 -0.53%, Nasdaq -0.98%
• FTSE100 -1.87%, CAC -2.52%, DAX -2.72%
• Gold down 1% at $US1209.41 an ounce
• Brent oil down 65 US cents at $US61.20 per barrel
• Iron ore up 7 US cents at $US69.06

What's on today:

Australia Roy Morgan consumer sentiment, Reserve Bank minutes, Speech from RBA assistant governor Guy Debelle; US housing starts, building permits, flash manufacturing PMI; Europe flash manufacturing PMI; China flash manufacturing PMI.

Stocks to watch:

Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton, oil producers. In London, Rio fell 2.5 per cent, BHP slid 3.7 per cent.

RBC Capital Markets has lowered its price target on BHP Billiton to $30 a share, from $37 and cut the miner to "underperfrom" from "sector perform".

Troubled miner Yancoal will not be able to push ahead with a planned $US2.3 billion rights offer after the Takeovers Panel ruled in favour of concerned minority shareholders.

The ability of James Packer's Crown Resorts to pay for a bulging pipeline of new casino developments could be at risk because of weak high roller activity around the world, the Australian Financial Review reports.

CIMB maintains an "add' recommendation on Suncorp Group with a slightly lowered $15.00 target price, from $15.07 a share previously on the insurer and bank.

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