The Aussie market is poised to open higher following strong leads from Wall Street overnight after commodities and mining shares advanced

The SPI is up 38 points at 5,208.

Locally, in economic news on Friday, Reserve Bank of Australia head of Financial Stability Luci Ellis is scheduled to speak at the Financial Risk Day 2016 conference in Sydney.

In the equities space, Premier Investments is slated to release half year results.

Key Numbers:

• SPI futures up 38pts or 0.7% to 5208 at about 7am Sydney time
• AUD +1.2% to 76.40 US cents
• On Wall St, near 4pm, Dow +0.9%, S&P 500 +0.9%, Nasdaq +0.3%
• In Europe, Stoxx 50 -0.6%, FTSE +0.4%, CAC -0.5%, DAX -0.9%
• In London, BHP +7.7%, Rio +5.4%
• Spot gold -0.5% to $US1256.33 at 3.51pm New York time
• Brent crude +2.9% to $US41.50 at 1.19pm New York time
• US oil +4.6% to $US40.22
• In LME trading, copper bid up 2.7%, zinc +4.2%, nickel +3.5%, lead +3.2%

What’s on today

Overseas data: US Michigan consumer sentiment index (March prelim), Baker Hughes rig count.

Rate decisions in Russia, Mexico.

New York Fed to hold conference, NY chief William Dudley to speak as well as Boston Fed boss Eric Rosengren. In Frankfurt, St Louis Fed’s James Bullard speaks.

Earnings: Tiffany, Aluminum Corp of China.

Sovereign rating updates: Austria (S&P), Cyprus (Moody’s & S&P), Denmark (S&P), Estonia (Moody’s), Finland (S&P), Hungary (S&P), Italy (DBRS), Lithuania (S&P), Luxembourg (S&P), Nigeria (S&P), Portugal (S&P), Russia (S&P), Qatar (Moody’s), Sweden (Fitch).

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