What you need2know

SPI futures up 36pts or 0.7% to 5241 about 6.30am Sydney time

AUD -0.3% to 77.88 US cents, 85.56 Japanese yen, 68.99 Euro cents and 54.36 British pence

On Wall St, Dow +0.2%, S&P 500 +0.1%, Nasdaq +0.2%

In Europe, Stoxx 50 +1%, FTSE +0.1%, CAC +0.6%, DAX +0.7%

In London, BHP +3.4%, Rio +3.9%

Spot gold -0.5% to $US1244.30 at 4.27pm New York time

Brent crude +3.1% to $US45.39 at 4.04pm New York time

Iron ore +3.1% to $US64.77 a tonne

What's on today

Local data: NAB business confidence 1st Qtr at 11.30am

ECB rate decision with Mario Draghi press conference; Riksbank rate decision; Obama arrives in London for talks with Cameron; International Oil Summit in Paris,

Overseas data: Euro-area consumer confidence (April); UK retail sales (March), UK budget balance (March); French manufacturing confidence (April); US jobless claims (weekly), Chicago Fed national activity index (March), Philadelphia Fed manufacturing (April), US FHFA home price index (Feb.), US leading economic indicators (March).

Overseas earnings: Cemex SAB de CV, PPG Industries, Sherwin-Williams, Travelers Cos, Under Armour, Verizon Communications, General Motors, Schlumberger, Microsoft, Starbucks, Visa, Alphabet, Lazard, Sky.

Stocks in focus

BHP Billiton rose 3.4 per cent in Wednesday trade in London; its year to date return in London now is 14 per cent. Rio Tinto climbed 3.9 per cent, boosting its year to date return to more than 22 per cent.

Currencies

The US dollar rose against the euro on fears that comments from the ECB on Thursday could hurt the euro zone common currency, while some riskier commodity currencies remained near multi-month highs on relief over China's economy. The ECB, though, is not expected to make any policy changes at its meeting on Thursday. It is expected to reiterate its plans to support the euro zone economy, according to analysts.

Turkey's lira rose 0.8 per cent. Policy makers, who met for the first time under their new central bank chief, Murat Cetinkaya, cut the upper band of a three-pronged rate corridor by 50 basis points to 10 per cent.

Abolitionist Harriet Tubman will appear on front of the new $US20 bill, replacing former President Andrew Jackson and becoming the first woman featured on US paper currency in modern times, a Treasury official said, in a design overhaul that will leave Alexander Hamilton on the $US10 note.

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump would be inclined to replace Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen if he wins the White House despite supporting the US central bank's efforts to keep interest rates low, he told Fortune magazine.

Commodities

Iron ore surged to a 10-month high on resilient demand in China and BHP Billiton's plan to ease back on supply growth. Ore with 62 per cent content delivered to Qingdao climbed 3.1 per cent to $US64.77 a tonne on Wednesday, according to Metal Bulletin data. Futures on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange jumped as much as 4.8 per cent to 454.5 yuan ($US70.30), while the SGX AsiaClear contract rallied as much as 5 per cent to $US60.48, rising for a third day.

Aluminium hit a six-month peak on Wednesday as the appetite for risk increased among investors who took a more upbeat view on the Chinese economy and saw commodities as relatively cheap. "I think there's some restocking coming through in China based on some stability in the economy and generally we're seeing some risk appetite coming back. There's a certain warming towards commodities in general," said Robin Bhar, head of metals research at Societe Generale in London. Three-month aluminium on the London Metal Exchange climbed 2.2 per cent to close at $US1622.50 a tonne, the strongest since October 2015.

United States

US stocks edged higher as oil rallied, with the Standard & Poor's 500 Index holding at a four-month high, while investors focused on a slate of corporate earnings that were better than estimated. "We're now a couple of heartbeats off the all-time high and that's creating performance anxiety among fund managers, causing people to think the picture's not as glum," said Nick Kalivas, senior equity product strategist at Invesco PowerShares in Downers Grove, Illinois, which has about $US100 billion in its funds. It's keeping an underlying bid in the market."

The parent of Britain's Daily Mail said on Wednesday it had not submitted a bid to buy Yahoo's core internet business, but was in talks with potential suitors of the American company. Yahoo's advisers are working through offers to put together a short list, Reuters reporting on Tuesday, citing sources.

US home resales rebounded more than expected in March as supply improved. The National Association of Realtors said on Wednesday that existing home sales surged 5.1 per cent to an annual rate of 5.33 million units last month, beating economists' expectations for a 3.5 per cent increase. Sales were up 1.5 per cent from a year ago.

Europe

European stocks advanced in late trading, extending a three-month high, as a rebound in oil spurred energy stocks, and miners climbed. The Stoxx 600 rose 0.4 per cent to 350.74 at the close of trading, after earlier falling as much as 0.5 per cent. Recent gains have pushed it out of a holding range it was stuck in for a month. Still, the equity gauge has tumbled 15 per cent since reaching a record a year ago.

"Oil prices remain a phenomenon," said Guillermo Hernandez Sampere, head of trading at MPPM EK in Eppstein, Germany. "The volatility in oil will not come to an end, as supply and demand are not in focus. We must accept that it's a game of power and not fundamentally based anymore."

Commerzbank chief Martin Blessing said a "slow" first quarter will make it more difficult to match last year's profit, just a month after the bank projected an increase in full-year earnings. "The result for the first three months is likely to be lower than in the previous quarter," Blessing told shareholders at the annual general meeting in Frankfurt on Wednesday. "This will also have an impact on the year as a whole - it will be more challenging to attain the net profit posted in 2015."

What happened yesterday

Australian shares rose for a second consecutive session, spurred by a surge in iron ore and oil prices as the global commodity rally continued to gain strength.  Overseas leads were strong, with Wall Street's S&P500 gaining 0.3 per cent, Brent crude oil adding another 2.6 per cent to $US44.03 per barrel and iron ore jumping 4.1 per cent to $US62.85 per tonne.

Even the steepest slide in Chinese stocks in seven weeks - the Shanghai Composite was down 4 per cent in afternoon trade - did not put much of a dent in the market. The benchmark S&P/ASX200, although off the day's highs, finished 0.5 per cent higher at 5216.0, while the broader All Ordinaries index closed up 0.5 per cent to 5281.2.