What you need2know:

• SPI futures down 3 pts at 5446

• AUD at 87.16 US cents

• In late trade, S&P 500 -0.2%, Dow flat, Nasdaq flat

• In Europe, Euro Stoxx 50 -1.2%, FTSE +0.3%, CAC -0.9%, DAX -0.9%

• Spot gold down $US3.84 to $US1158.76 an ounce

• Brent oil down $US1.84 to $US78.54 per barrel

What’s on today

US retail sales, consumer sentiment.

Stocks to watch

AGMs: Lend Lease, Automotive Holdings.

Orica has yet to raise the white flag on plans to sell its non-mining chemicals unit, but it is understood buyer interest is at about the $700 million to $800 million mark, according to the Street Talk column in the Australian Financial Review.

Deutsche Bank has a target price of $12.50 a share on Computershare stock and a “hold” recommendation.

Currencies

The Aussie will finish the year at US85¢ before falling prey to a strengthening US economy and dropping to US76¢ by the end of 2015, Morgan Stanley’s Geoffrey Kendrick says.

The Federal Reserve remains poised to start raising US interest rates by mid-2015, according to a Reuters poll of economists, but at a pace that’s well short of what Fed officials themselves say would be appropriate.

Commodities

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) closed 0.4 per cent lower at $US6655 a tonne.

Citi analyst David Wilson said Chinese demand for metals was holding up fairly well despite weaker economic data. "The fixation on the high-level macro data is somewhat misleading. The key point is that China is still going to require some very big tonnages of additional metal supplies."

Nickel reversed earlier gains to fall 4 per cent to end at $US15,400 a tonne. Limiting the decline were expectations that shortages would finally develop early next year from the delayed impact of a ban by Indonesia on ore shipments.

United States

US stocks are little changed in afternoon trading, fluctuating between small gains or losses as investors search for a new catalyst.

Wal-Mart Stores same-store sales, helped by lower gas prices, rose for the first time in seven quarters, but the world's largest retailer warned it was preparing for a bruising holiday season as it moves to match prices with online outlets.

United Parcel Service expects full-year 2015 earnings per share to fall within a range of $US5.45 to $US5.70, the company's chief financial officer Kurt Kuehn said on Thursday. Analysts have so far forecast 2015 earnings per share of $US5.71 for the world's largest package delivery company.

Europe

European stocks ended slightly higher on Thursday, pausing for breath following the previous session's sell-off, although energy shares sank along with Brent crude prices.

With the European earnings season nearing an end, results overall have been strong, with 60 per cent of companies meeting or beating profit forecasts, according to StarMine data. In absolute terms, however, while profits are up 13 per cent, revenues are up a meagre 0.8 percent, highlighting that Europe's earnings rebound has mostly come from cost-cutting.

"While corporate activity is pretty much stable, operating margins are hitting a peak. People shouldn't expect a further rise in the margins if there's no growth in revenue," said Bruno Fine, head of Roche-Brune Asset Management.

What happened yesterday

The Australian sharemarket has fallen to its fourth straight day of losses as energy stocks and the big banks weighed on the index, led by Westpac Banking after chief executive Gail Kelly flagged her exit.

On Thursday, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index dropped 20.4 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 5442.7. The broader All Ordinaries Index shed 19.5 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 5423.5.