Finance news you need to know today

HOPES of developing a vaccine against Zika have emerged, with an American pharmaceuticals company unveiling promising results in a trial.

A vaccine could be on its way for the Zika virus, which causes babies like two-week-old Sophia to be born with microcephaly. Picture: Felipe Dana

1. SYDNEY — The Australian dollar has risen on the back of evidence the US Federal Reserve had a dovish attitude to recent global uncertainty and volatility. At 6.30 am on Thursday, the local unit was trading at 71.68 US cents, up from 70.94 cents on Wednesday.

2. SYDNEY — The Australian share market looks set to open higher after solid gains on Wall Street after a surge in oil prices fired up energy stocks. At 06.45 am on Thursday, the share price index was up 77 points at 4,815.

3. WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve policymakers worried in January that tighter global financial conditions could hit the US economy and considered changing their planned path of interest rate hikes in 2016.

4. WASHINGTON — US factories cranked out more cars, furniture and food last month, boosting production by the most since July.

5. WASHINGTON — US producer prices edged up slightly in January as the biggest rise in food costs in eight months offset a further decline in energy prices.

6. ANKARA/DUBAI — Iran has vowed to resist any plan to restrain oil output as fellow OPEC ministers flew to Tehran to try to persuade the country to join the first global oil pact in 15 years.

7. NEW YORK — Bombardier says it plans to cut approximately 7000 jobs over two years, even as it adds jobs in growing areas of its business.

8. NEW YORK — Miner Anglo American debt has been downgraded to “junk” status with a negative outlook by Fitch Ratings, two days after Moody’s Investors Service made a similar move.

9. NEW YORK — Hopes of developing a vaccine against Zika have taken a small step forward as Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc said its experimental shot had induced a robust and durable response in mice.

10. BRASILIA — The Brazilian government expects to reach an agreement by Friday with Samarco Minerao SA to settle a 20 billion-real ($AU7 billion) lawsuit for damages in a deadly dam disaster, Brazil’s attorney general Lus Incio Adams says.