Finance news you need to know today

A GROUP of US senators have ordered Yahoo to explain why the hacking of half a billion accounts two years ago only came to light last week.

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

1. SYDNEY — The Australian dollar has lost of the gains it made against its US counterpart after the greenback rose following the first US presidential candidate. At 0635 AEST on Wednesday, the local unit was trading at 76.67 US cents, down from 77.40 cents on Tuesday.

2. SYDNEY — The Australian market looks set to open flat after Wall Street gained following the first of three televised US presidential debates. At 0645 AEST on Wednesday, the share price index was down five points at 5,402.

3. ALGIERS — Saudi Arabia and Iran have dashed hopes that OPEC oil producers could clinch an output-limiting deal in Algeria this week as the group and non-member Russia were still trying to bridge differences between the kingdom and Tehran.

4. WASHINGTON — US consumer confidence in September rose to the highest level in nine years, a hopeful sign that economic growth will accelerate in coming months.

5. WASHINGTON — The World Bank has reappointed Jim Yong Kim to a five-year term as president of the multilateral development lender after the nomination period closed without any challengers coming forward.

6. WASHINGTON — A group of Democratic US senators have ordered Yahoo to explain why hackers’ theft of user information for half a billion accounts two years ago only came to light last week.

7. LONDON — A British court has fined Merlin Entertainments STG5 million ($A8.49 million) over a rollercoaster crash at its Alton Towers theme park that seriously injured five people.

8. GRANGEMOUTH, Scotland — Britain’s first shale gas delivery from the United States has arrived to the sound of a lone piper as political debate about its controversial fracking method of extraction swirled both north and south of the Scottish border.