The Aussie market is poised to open lower following falls on Wall Street overnight after the US Federal Reserve failed to give investors a strong indication of when it might scale back future interest rate rises.

The SPI futures contract is down 38 points at 4,877.

In local economic news today, the Australian Bureau of Statistics is due to release the international trade price indexes for the December quarter.

In the equities space, Energy Resources of Australia is slated to post half year financial results, and Fortescue Metals is expected to release its December quarter production report.

Key Numbers:

• SPI futures down 38 points to 4877
• AUD buying 70.16 US cents, 83.24 Japanese yen, 64.34 Euro cents and 49.22 British pence
• On Wall St, late, S&P 500 -1.2%, Nasdaq -2.2%, Dow Jones -1.4%
• In Europe, Stoxx 50 +0.4%, FTSE +1.3%, CAC +0.5%, DAX +0.6%
• Spot gold up 0.7% to $US1127.48 per ounce
• Brent crude jumps 3.5% $US32.75 per barrel
• Iron ore rises 3.3% to $US42.43 per tonne

What’s on today

Australia 4th Qtr international trade price indexes. US Fed policy statement. NZ rate decision, South Africa rate decision.

Commodities

Russian officials have decided they should talk to Saudi Arabia and other OPEC countries about output cuts to bolster oil prices, the head of Russia’s pipeline monopoly said on Wednesday, remarks that spurred a sharp rise in prices.

Oil futures surged 5% after the comments by Nikolai Tokarev, head of oil pipeline monopoly Transneft, which gave the first hint of possible cooperation between the top non-OPEC oil producer and the cartel to try to reverse a record glut.

Brent crude rose $US1.61 to $US33.40 a barrel, a 5 per cent gain, by 12:20 pm EST (1720 GMT), after a session low of $U30.83. It was also boosted by US demand following a blizzard.

Iron ore heavyweights Australia and Brazil are gaining market share in top buyer China, but aren’t quite destroying their smaller rivals as quickly as they need to.