Good morning traders. Thanks @ttward, @Ravgnome & the aftermarket loungers.

Some more brexit news, after voting down the last-ditch deal with the EU, their parliament has now ruled out another option, the “no deal” exit. With a few options left on the table, we may see the process get drawn out much further. But the no deal is pretty widely regarded as the worst option, so that should please markets a little (although is was an expected outcome), and you can probably hear the collective sigh of relief.

ASX Market Report

The Australian sharemarket has closed lower for a fourth straight day, after a vote in the British House of Commons cast the Brexit process into disarray.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 13.6 points, or 0.22 per cent, to 6,161.2 points at 1615 AEDT on Wednesday, while the broader All Ordinaries was down 14.6 points, or 0.23 per cent, at 6,246.

"A little bit of a retraction in global investor sentiment on the back of what's happening on Brexit," Rakuten Security chief operating officer Nick Twidale said.

The British House of Commons soundly defeated Prime Minister Theresa May's EU exit plan, 391 votes to 242, 17 days before the UK leaves is due to leave. The vote overshadowed strong GDP numbers out of the UK.

Oil stocks on the Australian market were the worst hit, with Woodside Petroleum down 1.29 per cent, Santos down 1.15 per cent and Beach Energy down 2.43 per cent.

But New Hope Corporation moved 4.28 per cent higher after telling investors after the close on Tuesday that its New Acland coal mine on Queensland's Darling Downs had won environmental approval.

Among mining companies, BHP was down 0.11 per cent, Rio Tinto was down 0.24 per cent and Fortescue Metals was up 0.15 per cent.

An increase in the price of gold overnight boosted Newcrest Mining, up 2.98 per cent, Saracen Mineral, up 5.24 per cent, and Evolution Mining, up 1.11 per cent, while Northern Star - which is trading ex-dividend - fell 0.88 per cent.

The big four banks were mixed, with ANZ up 0.04 per cent, Commonwealth down 0.11 per cent, NAB down 0.44 per cent and Westpac down 0.74 per cent.

Yowie was up 21.43 per cent after the confectionary maker became the subject of a $20 million takeover bid by investment firm Keybridge Capital.

Sigma Healthcare Limited fell 12.3 per cent after the pharmacy operator rejected a takeover offer from Australian Pharmaceuticals Industries as not in shareholder's interest.

API decided to walk away from the deal instead of making a higher offer, and said it would decide what to do with the 12.85 stake of Sigma it bought last year.

Shares of API, which owns the Priceline and Soul Pattinson brands, were down 3.57 per cent.

Mr Twidale said investors were in a wait-and-see mode and waiting to see what would happen with the US-China trade talks.

US President Donald Trump's chief trade negotiator said on Tuesday that the talks were progressing daily, and he'd know "before too long" whether a deal was possible. "We're in a real status quo, and the status quo is to the downside," with a big correction possible, Mr Twidale said.

ON THE ASX:

* The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 13.6 points, or 0.22 per cent, to 6,161.2 points at 1630 AEDT on Tuesday.

* The All Ordinaries was down 14.6 points, or 0.23 per cent, to 6246.

* At 1630 AEDT, the SPI200 futures index was down 12 points at 6161.

CURRENCY SNAPSHOT AT 1630 AEDT:

One Australian dollar buys:

* 70.60 US cents, from 70.81 US on Tuesday

* 78.60 Japanese yen, from 78.84

* 62.56 euro cents, from 62.74

* 53.93 British pence, from 54.16

* 103.18 NZ cents, from 103.22

GOLD:

The spot price of gold in Sydney at 1630 AEDT was $US1304.11 per fine ounce, from $US1301.45 on Tuesday.

In Asia

Data continued to reinforce the picture of a slowing world economy. Japan’s machinery orders fell in January at the fastest pace in four months, pushing the Nikkei down more than 1 percent .

Australia also continued its run of weak numbers, as an index of consumer sentiment slipped in March. U.S. monthly inflation rose, according to Tuesday data, but the gain was the smallest since September 2016.

That’s kept equity markets nervous. MSCI’s Asia-Pacific equity index lost 0.3 percent, although a pan-European benchmark inched up. German and French indexes slipped around 0.2 percent . Wall Street was set for a weaker open, futures show.

“Markets are still hopeful for a U.S.-China trade deal — my concern is that this is not necessarily going to ride to the rescue of the weak economy ... ,” said Steve Barrow, G10 strategist at Standard Bank. “That means riskier financial assets like equities are going to struggle from here.”

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In Europe

European shares jumped on Wednesday as investors bet British lawmakers would vote to reject a disorderly no-deal Brexit, but underwhelming results from Inditex and Adidas kept gains limited.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index climbed to close up 0.6 percent while London’s FTSE 100 barely managed a 0.1 percent gain as sterling extended gains.

Lawmakers resoundingly voted against Prime Minister Theresa May’s amended Brexit deal late on Tuesday, forcing parliament to decide whether to back a no-deal Brexit or seek a last-minute delay to the process.

“I think the market can see that today parliament is going to vote against no deal,” said Duncan Weldon, cross asset allocation strategist at Legal & General Investment.

But investors were far from exuberant. “I think a lot of people who don’t have to be invested in the UK are sitting this one out for the moment”, he added.

European stocks were boosted by a 1 percent jump in oil prices which drove the STOXX 600 oil & gas index up 1.6 percent to its highest level in four months.

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In the United States

U.S. stocks pared gains on Wednesday as Boeing shares dropped after President Donald Trump said the United States was going to order the grounding of Boeing’s 737 MAX jets after a fatal crash in Ethiopia.

Also creating bearishness, Trump said he was in no rush to complete a trade deal with China that Washington wants to include structural reforms by Beijing, including how it treats U.S. intellectual property.

“The market took (the comment) to mean a trade deal still isn’t imminent,” said Michael Antonelli, market strategist at Robert W. Baird in Milwaukee.

Boeing Co shares were down about 2 percent, amounting to a more than 50-point drag on the Dow, which was last up just 0.2 percent. The weekend crash of a Boeing 737 MAX 8 in Ethiopia was the second fatal crash involving the a aircraft in months. A number of other countries have announced they were grounding the best-selling 737 MAX jets.

Stocks had risen sharply earlier after inflation data backed the Federal Reserve’s patient stance on future interest rate hikes.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 39.52 points, or 0.15 percent, to 25,594.18, the S&P 500 gained 19.05 points, or 0.68 percent, to 2,810.57 and the Nasdaq Composite added 56.37 points, or 0.74 percent, to 7,647.40.

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Australian News

The costs for the government to borrow via issuing 10-year bonds dived to a 30-month low today as global investors piled into safe-haven assets as growth in the US, European, Chinese and domestic economies decelerated. Government 10-year bond yields slumped 7.8 points to a 30-month low of 1.955 per cent, just 13 points off their record low reached in 2016 and 44 points above the Reserve Bank cash rate.
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Pessimistic consumers outnumber optimists. Sentiment among Australia's consumers has fallen to its lowest level in 18 months, according to the Westpac-Melbourne Institute Index of Consumer Sentiment.
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The chart that helps explain Sydney, Melbourne property price slump. From the National Australia Bank, it shows the value of new investor home loans issued across the country.
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Prime Minister Scott Morrison has ramped up his attack on Labor's plan to lift wages, accusing Bill Shorten of forcing businesses to sack people to give others pay rises. The opposition has hinted at tweaking industrial laws to drive wages up for low-paid workers, while unions are pushing for a $43-a-week rise in the minimum wage.
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There will always be tension between workers and investors over who gets a greater share of the profit pie. Business groups have expressed concern after Labor said it would consider boosting the minimum wage to a "living wage" should it win the next election.
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Aussie banks can afford $12 billion Kiwi safety net, says RBNZ. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has mounted a firm defence of its plan to force Australia's major banks to hold $NZ12.5 billion ($A12.12 billion) more in capital in their banking operations across the Tasman, saying the "highly profitable" businesses would have to accept lower returns.
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A review into the Australian Taxation Office's debt collection practices has found that staff in its Adelaide office were not driven to seize money from taxpayer accounts as part of a wide-ranging "cash grab", but that there were incidents at that office that highlight the need for better staff training.
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Global News

IBM has been accused of using Flickr photos for a facial-recognition project, without the full consent of people in the images. The company extracted nearly one million photos from a dataset of Flickr images originally compiled by Yahoo.
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Aurora Cannabis soars on news it’s hiring hedge-fund manager Nelson Peltz as adviser. Aurora Cannabis Inc. led a rally in cannabis stocks Wednesday, after the company said it’s hiring hedge-fund manager Nelson Peltz as an adviser with the aim of sealing new cooperation agreements and expanding globally.
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Purdue Pharma’s Chief Executive Officer Craig Landau said the company is considering bankruptcy, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday, as the OxyContin maker faces a slew of lawsuits alleging the drugmaker contributed to opioid epidemic sweeping the United States. A Purdue Pharma spokesman told Reuters that the company was looking at all options, but had not yet made a decision.
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The EU on Tuesday set out a 10-point plan aimed at rebalancing relations with Beijing as fears grow about Chinese investment and influence on critical infrastructure, including new communication technology. European leaders will be asked to sign off on the proposals at when they meet next week in Brussels, with senior officials urging them to take action to protect EU values and standards, warning that China is a "rival" as well as the bloc's biggest trading partner.
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Brexit chaos means business is 'staring down the precipice'. Companies in the United Kingdom are suffering from a bad case of déjà vu after lawmakers rejected a second version of the Brexit deal negotiated by Prime Minister Theresa May. "Enough is enough," said Carolyn Fairbairn, director general of the Confederation of British Industry, a business lobby.
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The UK economy grew by 0.2% in the three months to January, matching the growth of the previous three months. The report from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed a pick-up in activity in January when the economy expanded by 0.5%.
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China saved nearly 200 billion yuan (US$29.7 billion) in just four months following the nation’s income tax reform, said Wang Jun, the minister of State Administration of Taxation. Income tax revenue marked a 20% year-on-year growth in nine months to September 2018, however after income tax reform took effect in October last year, income tax revenue for the four months of October 2018 to January 2019 was reduced by 14.2%, Wang said in a Securities Times report.
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Who is Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei?
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Stock News

Carnarvon Petroleum oil and gas story expected to have many more pages. Managing director Adrian Cook explained to investors at this week’s Proactive CEO Sessions in Sydney and Melbourne that the company had $98 million in cash to vigorously pursue its strategy.
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NTM Gold Ltd (ASX:NTM) has completed tranche two of the equity issue to DGO Gold Limited (ASXGO) as part of DGO’s alliance with NTM to accelerate exploration at the Redcliffe Gold Project near Leonora, WA. The remaining $1.5 million has now been settled ahead of its March 31 due date with the issue of 37.5 million shares at 0.04 cents per share, with shareholder approval received on February 15, 2019.
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Woodside and Federal Resources Minster Matt Canavan have blasted new emissions rules in Western Australia as analysts warn the policy could delay major LNG projects and a deliver wider hit to the gas industry worth up to $US10 billion ($14.2 billion).
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Doray Minerals receives Silverlake merger support from largest shareholder. The proposed merger with Silverlake is by way of a share scheme arrangement and option scheme arrangement.
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Tlou Energy positive as Botswana tender passes technical phase. The Botswana authorities reviewing the project tenders will now evaluate the financial elements of the two rival proposals
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Australia's top gold miner Newcrest Mining Ltd says it has signed an exploration agreement for a joint venture with London-listed Greatland Gold Plc. The joint venture comes a day after Newcrest announced it will buy a 70 per cent interest in the Red Chris copper and gold mine in Canada from Imperial Metals Corp for $US806.5 million.
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Australian Potash Ltd (ASX:APC) has closed the pro-rata renounceable rights offer made to shareholders last month. The offer was partially underwritten by Patersons Securities Limited to $4.2 million, who has also acted as lead manager.
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archTIS founder and chief technology officer buys 90,000 shares on-market. The company is working towards the commercial release of its Kojensi Gov software offering.
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Investment company Keybridge Capital has launched a complex cash and scrip bid for Yowie Group that values the Perth-founded chocolate maker at $20 million. Keybridge, half the size of Yowie, says the offer for the cash-rich company is worth 9.2¢ a share, a 31 per cent premium to the target’s closing price on Tuesday.
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Some champions league football on again this morning, Liverpool v Bayern and Barcelona v Lyon. (Watching the Liverpool game, who just took the lead 1-0).