Finance news you need to know today

DONALD Trump says he wants to “project American power in distant lands”, making his case for a proposed $71 billion increase in defence spending.

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

1. SYDNEY — The Australian market looks set to open lower following Wall Street, which retraced from record highs amid renewed expectations of a US interest rate rise. At 0730 AEDT on Friday, the share price futures index was down 24 points, or 0.42 per cent, at 5,740 points.

2. SYDNEY — Meanwhile, the Australian dollar plummeted against the greenback after official figures on Thursday showed the trade surplus fell by $2 billion, or 61 per cent, to $1.3 billion in January. The local currency was trading at 75.72 US cents at 0730 AEDT on Friday, down sharply from 76.61 cents on Thursday.

3. NEWPORT NEWS — President Donald Trump said on Thursday he wants a US military buildup of more ships and planes to “project American power in distant lands,” making his case for a proposed $US54 billion ($A71 billion) increase in defence spending that has US politicians squabbling.

4. PARIS — Investigators have searched the house of French presidential candidate Francois Fillon as part of an investigation into payments made to his wife, Le Parisien newspaper reported, citing unidentified sources.

5. SAN FRANCISCO — Amazon has launched a new program to help students build capabilities into its voice-controlled assistant Alexa, in the latest move by a technology firm to nurture ideas and talent in artificial intelligence research.

6. LA PAZ — The Bolivian government has filed a formal complaint with the French embassy about a video game produced by a French company that portrays the South American country as an area controlled by drug traffickers, authorities said.

7. NEW YORK — Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE Corp is nearing an agreement to plead guilty to US criminal charges and pay hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties over allegations it violated US laws that restrict sale of US technology to Iran, a person familiar with the matter said.

8. MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo will travel to Detroit on Friday to meet with executives from Ford and General Motors to talk about US-Mexico trade, the ministry said on Thursday.