Good morning team, Chris Conway your Chief Market and Trading Strategist here with your First Look.

SPI futures are pointing to a flat start this morning, after US markets put in a mixed performance overnight.

On Wall Street, selling contained with UnitedHealth’s 1.1% slide the Dow’s biggest loser. Drug makers and oil producers helped offset the losses. Both Amazon and Apple set record highs.

As for commodities, oil lifted after the latest weekly US inventory stats were less bearish than expected – stockpiles still rose but at a slower pace. That helped bolster the US listed shares of BHP, which advanced 1%.

Base metals were mostly positive overnight with iron ore, copper and aluminium each higher. The standout was aluminium which reached its highest since May 2015. The spot price of iron ore edged 0.3 per cent higher to $US82.25 a tonne.

What’s on today:

Local data: Australia new home sales February, Job vacancies February

Trading Ex-Div: APN, ARF, BOQ, DPS, CAB, CIP, CLW, FET, MMS, RFF, SLK, VRT

Overseas data: Euro zone economic confidence March; German CPI March; US GDP fourth quarter, Personal consumption fourth quarter, Initial jobless claims weekly

Fed speakers: Mester in Chicago, Kaplan in Washington, Williams in New York, Dudley in Sarasota

Key numbers:

SPI futures up three points, at 5862

AUD +0.5% to 76.68 US cents (Overnight range: 76.31 – 76.75)

On Wall St, Dow -0.2%, S&P 500 +0.1%, Nasdaq +0.4%

In New York, BHP +1%, Rio +0.1%

In Europe, Stoxx 50 +0.3%, FTSE +0.4%, CAC +0.5%, DAX +0.4%

Spot gold +0.1% to $US1252.98 an ounce

Brent crude +2.1% to $US52.42 a barrel

Iron ore (Metal Bulletin) +0.3% to $US82.25 a tonne

Dalian iron ore +2.9% to 578 yuan

Steam coal +0.0% to $US80.75, Met coal -0.6% to $US156.00

LME aluminium +0.8% to $US1960 a tonne

LME copper +0.6% to $US5907 a tonne

10-year bond yield: US 2.38%, Germany 0.34%, Australia 2.72%

What happened overnight: