Finance news you need to know today

WALMART has reported an 8-per-cent decline in fourth-quarter earnings as the retailer prunes its global footprint.

(FILES) This file photo taken on January 28, 2016 shows a closed sign at a Walmart store in Chinatown in Los Angeles, California. Wal-Mart Stores trimmed its sales forecast for fiscal 2017 February 18, 2016 due to store closures and the strong dollar as it reported lower fourth-quarter earnings.The world's biggest retailer saw shares tumble as it reported that it now expects fiscal 2017 sales to be flat, down from the previous outlook for three to four percent growth. Walmart's fiscal 2017 started February 1. / AFP / Mark Ralston

HERE are ten things making news in business and finance around the world today.

1. SYDNEY — The Australian dollar has fallen as oil prices ease. At 7am on Friday, the local unit was trading at 71.52 US cents, down from 71.60 cents on Thursday.

2. SYDNEY — The Australian stock market has opened lower in the wake of a halt to Wall Street’s strong three-day rally. On the ASX, the banks, big miners and energy stocks were all lower at 10.20am on Friday, with the benchmark 200 companies down 0.28 per cent.

3. RIYADH — Saudi Arabia is “not prepared” to cut oil production, Agence France-Presse has reported, quoting the Saudi foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir.

4. DUBAI — The United Arab Emirates has thrown its support behind a plan involving oil powerhouses Russia and Saudi Arabia to freeze oil production levels in an attempt to halt the slide in crude prices.

5. WASHINGTON — The World Bank says it is making $US150 million ($A209.25 million) in financing immediately available to help combat the Zika virus outbreak in affected Latin American and Caribbean countries.

6. WASHINGTON — The number of people seeking unemployment aid fell last week to the lowest level since November, evidence that stock market turmoil and slow growth overseas haven’t caused US businesses to cut jobs.

7. PARIS — A leading global policy organisation says world economic growth is likely to level out this year and next.

8. FRANKFURT — Top officials from the European Central Bank have expressed concern at their last meeting about turbulent financial markets and the increasingly dim outlook for China and other emerging economies.

9. LONDON — Iran’s Bank Mellat will pursue damages against Britain after the European Union’s top court effectively ruled that the bank’s assets should not have been frozen from 2010.

10. NEW YORK — Walmart has reported an 8-per-cent decline in fourth-quarter earnings as the retailer prunes its global footprint.