What you need2know

• SPI futures up 1pt at 5891

• AUD at 77.74 US cents, 93.36 Japanese yen, 70.50 Euro cents and 51.02 British pence

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

• In Europe, Stoxx 50 +1%, FTSE +0.6%, CAC +0.9%, DAX +1%

• Spot gold down 19 US cents to $US1200.15 an ounce

• Brent oil up 14 US cents or 0.23% to $US60.69 per barrel

What's on today

No local data. US non-farm payroll, trade balance.

The following stocks will trade ex dividend today: Academies Australasia, Adacel Technologies, Bell Financial, Hunter Hall, MACA, Nine Entertainment, Oil Search, Royalco Resources, Saunders International, Sonic Healthcare, Sunland Group, Swick Mining, Tabcorp, Treasury Wine Estates.

Stocks to watch

BC Capital Markets has an "outperform" on SinoGas and Energy Holdings with a target price at 40¢ a share, up from 30¢.

Macquarie Wealth Management is "neutral" on Silver Lake Resources, with a 12-month price target of 22¢ as the "Murchison misadventure continues to take its toll".

JPMorgan has an "underweight" recommendation on Suncorp Group. It has a price target of $13.90 a share.

Currencies

The euro zone common currency, which has lost 15 per cent against the dollar in six months, briefly traded under $US1.10 for the first time since September 2003 and hit a session low of $US1.0988. It was last off 0.65 per cent at $US1.1005 in selling that accelerated after a news conference by ECB chief Mario Draghi.

The ECB now sees GDP growth accelerating to 1.5 per cent in 2015 from last year's 0.9 per cent and ahead of its December forecast for 1.0 per cent. It foresees GDP growth of 1.9 per cent in 2016, higher than December's forecast, and of 2.1 per cent in 2017.

It cut its 2015 inflation forecast to zero percent from 0.7 per cent seen in December and raised the 2016 forecast to 1.5 per cent from December's 1.3 per cent. It sees inflation rising to 1.8 per cent - near the ECB's target of just under 2 per cent - in 2017.

Commodities

Iron ore slumped below $US60 a metric ton after China set the lowest target for economic growth in more than 15 years, highlighting the slowdown in the largest buyer as low-cost supplies expand further amid a glut.

Ore with 62 per cent content at Qingdao declined 3.6 per cent to $US59.73 a dry ton, according to Metal Bulletin Ltd. The price, which sank for a third day in the longest streak since January 28, is at the lowest since at least May 2009.

Nearly all of the main contracts on the London Metal Exchange saw an uplift following news from China's annual parliamentary meeting that the world's second biggest economy plans to step up spending.

LME copper was among the two contracts which traded lower overnight as inventories surged by 10,250 tonnes to 318,375, the second consecutive big daily increase, bringing the rise so far this year to 80 per cent.

United States

US stocks were little changed on Thursday afternoon, after two days of declines on the S&P 500, as economic data did little to alter expectations on the timing of an interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve.

Initial jobless claims rose to 320,000 in the latest week, above the 295,000 estimate and 313,000 in the prior week. The disappointing claims numbers come after a weaker-than-expected private payrolls report on Wednesday and ahead of Friday's monthly employment report.

AbbVie is to buy Pharmacyclics for about $US21 billion, giving it access to what is expected to be one of the world's top-selling cancer drugs and expanding its reach in the profitable oncology field. Pharmacyclics shares jumped 10.5 per cent to $US254.63 while AbbVie lost 4 per cent to $US57.68.

Europe

The European Central Bank will launch into quantitative easing next week having increased its economic growth forecasts for this year and next. President Mario Draghi said the first bond purchases with new money would take place on March 9.

"Whilst the eurozone indices didn't lose their morning gains, neither did they explode and build on the growth they had seen before the (ECB) conference began," says Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell in a market report. "It appears that the very existence of the ECB conference this afternoon did more for the markets than its content. What did proceed as expected was the demise of the euro; the currency hit even fresher 11 year lows during Draghi's conference, and can expect to lose more once the bond buying begins next week."

Miners bucked the trend, with Rio Tinto down 2.88 per cent, after China announced an economic growth target for 2015 of around 7 per cent and said it would boost government spending, signalling that the lowest rate of expansion for a quarter of a century was the "new normal" for the world's No.2 economy."

What happened yesterday

The sharemarket managed the slightest of gains on Thursday as shareholders who were happy to take profits through most of the day changed their tune late afternoon.