What you need2know:

• SPI futures down 4 pts at 5629

• AUD at 93.50 US cents, 98.37 Japanese yen, 72.24 Euro cents and 57.23 British pence

• On Wall St, S&P 500 +0.3%, Dow +0.1%, Nasdaq +0.5%

• In Europe, Euro Stoxx 50 +1.8%, FTSE +0.1%, CAC +1.7%, DAX +1%

• Iron ore falls 1.6% to $US84.30 per metric tonne

• Spot gold down 0.5% to $US1263.16 an ounce

• Brent oil down 0.8% to $US101.95 per barrel

What’s on today

US non-farm payrolls; UK BoE inflation forecast; Germany industrial production.

Stocks to watch

BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, BC Iron, Atlas Iron as the iron ore price hits 5-year lows.

Deutsche Bank has given Sandfire Resource a “buy” rating after its unexpected full-year maiden dividend and has a 12-month price expectation of $7.30.

Bell Potter has kept its forecasts and “buy” rating unchanged on National Australia Bank but edged the price target slightly higher to $37.50 from $37.20.

Currencies

The euro posted its biggest one-day loss against the US dollar in nearly three years after the European Central Bank cut interest rates and said it would launch an asset purchase program to ward off deflation.

The greenback, in turn, notched its biggest one-day gain against a basket of major currencies since August 2013 after ECB president Mario Draghi said the central bank would also start purchasing securitised loans and covered bonds next month.

"It's an aggressive move on behalf of the ECB," said Richard Scalone, co-head of foreign exchange at TJM Brokerage in Chicago. "It's pretty clear that the euro is going to be in for a period of protracted weakness."
Speculation had grown that the ECB could embark on asset purchases after Draghi hinted at such a policy shift at a central bank symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on August 22.

Commodities

The operator of the London gold price benchmark has formally started the process to find a new administrator for the century-old mechanism that will halt the telephone call that four institutions enter twice a day in favour of an electronic solution.

Nickel prices climbed to their highest in seven weeks as speculators returned to the market on worries that the Philippines could follow Indonesia in banning unprocessed ore exports. Three-month nickel on the London Metal Exchange soared to a session high of $US19,498 a tonne, its strongest since July 14. It is up nearly 40 per cent so far this year.

RBC Capital Markets notes that China’s National Development and Reform Commission might introduce a new 3 per cent tax on imported high-ash coal this month and has instructed coastal utilities to cut thermal coal imports by up to 30–40 per cent during the rest of 2014 in an attempt to balance the oversupplied domestic market.

United States

US stocks ended lower on Thursday, reversing course late in the session as energy shares dropped and caution grew ahead of Friday's jobs report.

The economy is expected to have generated 230,000 new jobs in August, up from 209,000 in July, according to a Bloomberg survey. Today's ADP report showed the private sector created 204,000 jobs in August, slightly lower than expectations of 222,000.

In a separate Thursday report, the Institute for Supply Management said its services index rose to 59.6 last month from 58.7 in July, and was the highest reading since its inception in January 2008. That topped economists’ forecasts for 57.5, according to a Reuters survey.

Europe

European shares rose on Thursday, with a benchmark hitting a 6-1/2 year high as the European Central Bank moved to bolster growth and inflation.

In a series of measures highlighting growing concern about the currency bloc’s health, the ECB cut its main refinancing rate to 0.05 per cent from 0.15 per cent and drove the overnight deposit rate deeper into negative territory, now charging banks 0.20 per cent to park funds with the central bank.

BP was “grossly negligent” for its role in the 2010 spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a US district judge said in a ruling that could add billions of dollars in fines to the more than $US42 billion in charges taken so far for the worst offshore disaster in US history.

What happened yesterday

Australian shares closed in the red on Thursday, as the big four banks and Telstra fell in concert with the biggest miners, which came under pressure from a five-year low in the iron ore price.

The S&P/ASX 200 Index shed 24.8 points, or 0.44pc, to 5631.3.