Finance news you need to know today

GOLDMAN Sachs has been ordered to pay $120 million to settle charges that it manipulated a global benchmark for interest-rate swaps.

HERE are eight things making news in business and finance today.

1. SYDNEY — The Australian dollar is slightly weaker against its US counterpart. At 0630 AEDT, the local currency was trading at 72.45 US cents on Thursday, down from 72.55 US cents on Wednesday.

2. SYDNEY — The Australian share market is likely to open flat, taking the lead from Wall Street where stocks are largely unchanged. At 0645 AEDT on Thursday, the local SPI 200 futures contract was down four points, or 0.07 per cent, at 5,575 points.

3. WASHINGTON — Goldman Sachs has been ordered to pay $120 million to settle federal regulators’ charges that it deliberately manipulated a global benchmark for interest-rate swaps to its advantage.

4. HELSINKI — Finland’s Nokia Corp is suing Apple Inc, accusing the iPhone maker of violating 32 technology patents.

5. GENEVA — A dispute panel of the World Trade Organization (WTO) largely ruled in favour of Taiwan on Wednesday on its complaint over anti-dumping duties imposed by Canada on some of its steel goods.

6. NEW YORK CITY — Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht SA and affiliated petrochemical company Braskem SA have pleaded guilty in a US court to violating American foreign bribery laws as part of a $US3.5 billion ($A4.8 billion) deal.

7. LISBON — Portugal’s fragile economy is getting a tonic from tourism this year, with revenue up by more than 10 per cent through October including a 20 per cent jump in visitors from the United States.

8. LAGOS — Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency is reviving a five-year-old scandal involving one of Africa’s richest oil blocs, in which a former petroleum minister and his allies allegedly made $1.1 billion dollars and the state oil company $210 million.