Wall Street fell into the close as Apple slumped more than 3 per cent. However, Amazon.com and LinkedIn each surged in after-hours trade on better than expected quarterly results. Amazon leapt more than 12 per cent; LinkedIn jumped 19 per cent.

What you need2know

SPI futures down 9pts or 0.2% to 5192 at about 6.30am Sydney time

AUD +0.6% to 76.25 US cents

On Wall St, Dow -1.2%, S&P 500 -0.9%, Nasdaq -1.2%

In New York, Apple -3.1%, Cisco -2.4%, IBM -2.3%, Atlassian -2%

In Europe, Stoxx 50 -0.2%, FTSE flat, CAC flat, DAX +0..2%

In London, BHP +2.1%, Rio +4.3%

Spot gold +1.7% to $US1266.96 ounce at 3.34pm New York time

Brent crude +1.8% to $US48.04 barrel at 3.07pm New York time

Iron ore -2.7% to $US61.09 a tonne

What's on today

Local data: PPI 1st Qtr at 11.30am, Private sector credit March at 11.30am, NZ March building permits, NZ ANZ Business Confidence April

Overseas data: Russia rate decision; South Korea May business confidence; South Korea March industrial output; Euro unemployment rate March, Euro inflation April, Euro GDP 1st Qtr; US  employment cost index (1Q), US personal income/spending (March), US ISM Milwaukee manufacturing (April), US Chicago purchasing managers (April), US Michigan consumer sentiment (April final).

The Swiss National Bank holds its annual shareholder meeting, featuring a speech by President Thomas Jordan.

Fed speaker: Dallas chief Robert Kaplan in London

Overseas earnings: American Tower, Legg Mason, Phillips 66, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Imperial Oil, TransCanada, Bombardier Inc., Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp, China Construction Bank Corp, ICICI Bank, BASF, Swiss Re, Danske Bank, Royal KPN, Eni, Telefonica, AstraZeneca, Shire Plc, Luxottica Group, Iberdrola, Royal Bank of Scotland

Currencies

The prospects of the Australian dollar trading with an 80s-handle have faded dramatically after Wednesday's remarkably low inflation data, according to currency traders.

The US dollar reached the lowest level since June as weaker-than-forecast economic growth supported the Federal Reserve's decision to keep monitoring data before any further tightening of monetary policy.

The yen jumped 3 per cent to 108.12 per US dollar, its biggest increase since August, when China unexpectedly devalued the yuan. Japan's central bank left unchanged three key easing tools - the 80 trillion yen target for expanding the monetary base, the 0.1 per cent negative rate on a portion of the cash banks park at the BOJ, and a program to buy riskier assets including stocks.

New Zealand's currency surged 1.5 per cent, the most since March 29, after central bank governor Graeme Wheeler defied some market speculation he would cut already record-low rates.

Commodities

Iron ore retreated for a fourth day after commodity exchanges in China intensified a crackdown on speculative trading in raw materials that's pushed volumes to record levels in the world's biggest user and driven prices beyond levels that may be justified by underlying fundamentals. Ore with 62 per cent content delivered to Qingdao fell 2.7 per cent to $US61.09 a tonne on Wednesday, after sliding 11 per cent in the previous three sessions, according to Metal Bulletin Ltd. While the fourth straight decline is the longest run this month, it still leaves prices 40 per cent higher this year.

West Texas Intermediate crude held above $US45 a barrel after jumping 6.3 per cent over the previous two sessions. US production fell for a seventh week to the lowest level since October 2014, while Interfax said Russia may take part in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries' scheduled June meeting. "The fact we have a supply-side response coming through is one of the positives for the market," Michael McCarthy, chief strategist at CMC Markets in Sydney, said by phone. "The disaster scenario that was talked about in the first quarter has now been pulled back. It's become pretty clear that prices are not going to $US10 to $US20 a barrel in the near future."

Three-month aluminium was up 1.3 per cent at $US1664 a tonne. It has risen more than 10 per cent since late March because of the potential for tightness on the LME due to rising cancelled warrants, now around 45 per cent. Cancelled warrants are metal earmarked for delivery and so not available to the market. Globally though, aluminium is oversupplied, a problem which could be exacerbated by current high prices triggering smelter restarts in top producer China.

United States

US stocks dropped, with the Standard & Poor's 500 Index capping the biggest drop in three weeks, as Apple led an afternoon selloff in technology shares, overshadowing corporate deals and strong results from Facebook.

Billionaire Carl Icahn, who first disclosed his stake in Apple almost three years ago, has sold out of his position, the activist said Thursday. Icahn sold most of his remaining stake in February, Icahn told CNBC. Apple shares declined more than 3 per cent in late trade in New York.

Facebook jumped as much as 10.9 per cent to a record of $US120.79, a day after the company reported a 50 per cent rise in revenue. After the closing bell shares in both Amazon.com and LinkedIn surged as each company reported better than expected quarterly results.

Gross domestic product increased at a 0.5 per cent annual rate, the weakest since the first quarter of 2014, the Labor Department said on Thursday in its advance estimate.

Europe

European stocks edged higher as gains in commodity producers helped erase an earlier drop and investors assessed earnings reports. Anglo American and ArcelorMittal jumped more than 6.9 per cent, tracking metal prices higher. Banking results were also at the fore.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index added 0.2 per cent at the close of trading. It fell as much as 1.5 per cent earlier as the Bank of Japan refrained from boosting stimulus. A rebound since a February low has lost steam in the past week as the earnings season picked up pace. After reaching an almost four-month high on April 20, the benchmark fell for three of the past five sessions.

"The last thing I do really expect is a sustainable rally in stock prices," said Ralf Zimmermann, a strategist at Bankhaus Lampe in Dusseldorf, Germany. "Earnings in a nutshell look OK, but as earnings estimates further down the road are still too high, there will be a negative trend in earnings revisions."

Shares in Deutsche Bank gained after the bank announced an unexpected profit for the first quarter of 2016. The bottom line was driven by falling legal expenses and a better than expected performance from the bank's trading business.

What happened yesterday

A buoyant oil price and a billion-dollar bid for Pacific Brands pushed the Australian sharemarket higher to its first positive day in four, despite the Bank of Japan's slightly surprising decision not to ramp up stimulus.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index and the broader All Ordinaries Index each rose 0.7 per cent, to 5225.4 points and 5289.4 points respectively.