Finance news you need to know today

GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron have agreed to draw up a road map to deeper European Union integration.

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

1. SYDNEY — The Australian market looks set to open higher after the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq hit record highs, powered by rising oil prices and gains in technology stocks after a global cyber attack. At 0700 AEST on Tuesday, the share price futures index was up 17 points, or 0.29 per cent, at 5,835.

2. SYDNEY — The Australian dollar has been unable to sustain gains against the US dollar, despite a jump in crude oil futures and metals getting a boost. At 0700 AEST on Tuesday, the local currency was worth 74.14 US cents, down from 74.24 US cents on Monday.

3. LONDON — The spread of the global WannaCry “ransomware” cyber attack is slowing with no major infections reported, as attention shifted to investment and government policy implications of lax cyber security.

4. BERLIN — German Chancellor Angela Merkel and new French President Emmanuel Macron agreed on Monday to draw up a road map to deeper European Union integration and opened the door to changing the bloc’s treaties to facilitate ambitious reform.

5. WASHINGTON — Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said Monday that the Trump administration’s infrastructure plan will be out in a few weeks and will call for $200 billion in taxpayer money to generate $1 trillion in private investment.

6. BERLIN — Germany’s Social Democrats aim to win back working-class voters by promising to increase inheritance tax for the rich and abolish a flat-rate tax on investment income, a draft of its election manifesto seen by Reuters showed on Monday.

7. BISMARCK — TransCanada Corp. is reassessing whether oil producers in North Dakota and Montana are still interested in shipping crude through its long- delayed Keystone XL pipeline now that they have other new options to ship their product, including the Dakota Access pipeline.