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

The fallout from the Hayne Report has kicked up a gear, with highest profile casualty yet, the CEO of NAB Andrew Thorburn, as well as the Chairman Ken Henry, falling on their swords.

A risk-off day in the US following comments from Donald Trump that raised further doubts over whether China and the US, can come to an agreement before the next round of tariffs are due to come into effect.

ASX Market Report

Australian shares have enjoyed their fourth straight day of gains as the local currency slides further against the US dollar.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index closed up 66.4 points, or 1.1 per cent, at 6,092.5 points at 1615 AEDT on Thursday, while the broader All Ordinaries was up 67.3 points, or 1.1 per cent, at 6,159.1.

The ASX200 has gained 3.87 per cent on the week and is poised for its best week since mid-2016.

"An impressive day for the Australian sharemarket, especially given the negative news from overseas," said Bell Direct analyst Julia Lee. "The big four banks just powering along today."

ANZ, CBA and Westpac were up between 1.7 and 2.01 per cent.

NAB shares were up 1.26 per cent when it called a trading halt to announce chief executive Andrew Thorburn and chairman Dr Ken Henry would leave the bank.

Nearly all sectors were up aside from utilities, which were dragged down after AGL Energy announced a $25 million upgrade to Victoria's Loy Yang coal-fired power station.

AGL shares closed down 4.78 per cent, to $21.10.

Mining stocks surged, driven higher by a spike in iron ore prices following a dam disaster in Brazil.

Vale, the owner of the dam that collapsed, has declared force majeure on a number of its iron ore contracts.

Rio Tinto shares gained 1.34 per cent, to a 10-year high, while Fortesque Metals shares gained 0.99 per cent, reaching a two-year high.

The S&P/ASX 200 Materials sector is at a seven-year high.

IDP Education Ltd shares surged 21.16 per cent, to $13.80, after the student placement company reported earnings had jumped 33 per cent, to $66.8 million.

Its shares are up 40 per cent since the start of the year and are at an all-time high.

Miravac shares rose 3.25 per cent after the property developer and manager reported earnings and said demand for its residential developments is holding up amid the housing market downturn.

Shares in CYBG plc, a Glasgow-based holding company that owns three UK banks, were up 17.87 per cent, to $3.76, after company, which is dual-listed on the ASX and the London stock exchange, reported earnings.

The Aussie dollar was buying 70.99 US cents, down from 71.09 cents on Wednesday.

The Aussie has declined 1.9 per cent since midday on Wednesday, when Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe signalled that interest rates could move in either direction, a shift from its long-standing tightening bias.

Ms Lee said the strong volumes likely indicated international investors were taking advantage of the weaker Aussie dollar to invest in the local sharemarket.

ON THE ASX:

* The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index up 66.4 points, or 1.1 per cent, at 6,092.5 points at 1615 AEDT on Wednesday.

* The All Ordinaries was up 67.3 points, or 1.1 per cent, at 6,159.1.

* At 1630 AEDT, the SPI200 futures index was up 55 points, or 0.92 per cent, at 6,042.

CURRENCY SNAPSHOT AT 1630 AEDT:

One Australian dollar buys:

* 70.99 US cents, from 71.55 US on Monday

* 78.02 Japanese yen, from 78.53

* 62.48 euro cents, from 62.75

* 54.89 British pence, from 55.22

* 105.18 NZ cents, from 104.17

GOLD:

The spot price of gold in Sydney at 1630 AEDT was $US1303.40 per fine ounce, from $US1314.37 on Tuesday.

In Asia

Asian trading was still light overall though with China on holiday and no major economic data on the diary.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 0.1 percent as it rose to its highest since early October.

The index has risen steadily since early January as the U.S. Federal Reserve changed its tune and emerging markets have surged more broadly after a torrid 2018.

Australia’s benchmark stock index jumped 1.2 percent amid expectations of easy monetary policy after the country’s central bank chief shifted away from his previous tightening bias.

Japan’s Nikkei slipped 0.6 percent though and the caution quickly spread to Europe.

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In Europe

European shares fell sharply on Thursday ending a seven-session run of gains as a batch of worrying trading updates in a wide range of sectors combined with the European Union cutting its growth forecasts to weigh on markets.

Europe’s STOXX 600 ended the day down 1.5 percent, its biggest retreat since December 27, while Germany’s DAX sank 2.7 percent as disappointing December industrial data reinforced worries about the euro zone’s economic powerhouse.

“Eurozone stocks are suffering greatly as investors are fearful the region could be in for an economic downturn”, wrote David Madden from CMC Markets, adding that should the UK leave the EU without a deal, the deteriorating economic conditions could not come at a worse time.

London’s FTSE was down 1.1 percent after the Bank of England said Britain faces its weakest economic growth in a decade this year as uncertainty over Brexit mounts and the global economy slows.

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In the United States

U.S. stocks sank over 1 percent on Thursday on fears that the United States and China would not be able to reach a trade deal with less than a month left in their fragile truce, adding to worries about a slowdown in global growth.

President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping were unlikely to meet by an early March deadline set by the two countries for reaching a deal, two U.S. administration officials and a source familiar with the negotiations said.

That news came after White House adviser Larry Kudlow told Fox Business Network there was a “pretty sizable distance” between the countries, which are set to resume discussions in Beijing next week.

“Any concern that the stalemate won’t be overcome by China and U.S. is going to create negative sentiment for the markets just because trade is the single largest overhang,” said Mike Loewengart, vice-president of investment strategy at E*Trade Financial in New York.

Nine of the 11 major S&P sectors fell. The technology sector slid 1.58 percent, with chipmakers tumbling 2.23 percent. Chipmakers get a large chunk of their revenue from Chinese customers. The trade-sensitive industrials sector fell 1 percent.

After Wall Street’s strong run in January — on easing trade fears, a dovish Federal Reserve and largely upbeat U.S. earnings — the market has wobbled this month as disappointing forecasts from a number of U.S. companies give investors pause, the latest being Twitter Inc.

Twitter tumbled 9.4 percent after forecasting that revenue in the first quarter would be weaker than expected, while full-year operating costs would rise.

At 1:06 p.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 300.04 points, or 1.18 percent, at 25,090.26, the S&P 500 was down 33.80 points, or 1.24 percent, at 2,697.81 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 103.87 points, or 1.41 percent, at 7,271.41.

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Earnings Reports

Australian News

The Reserve Bank will slice predictions for the national economy and inflation on Friday as signs grow consumers are increasingly worried about holding down a job and the cost of living. Amid fresh forecasts of falls for Sydney and Melbourne house prices, the central bank will release its quarterly monetary policy statement that will contain downgrades to economic growth and underlying inflation. 
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House price falls help narrow gap between rich and poor, new report finds. Plummeting house prices have done little to dent the financial comfort of most Australians and in fact may have helped narrow the financial inequality gap between our richest and poorest. 
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KPMG unveils plan to move low-income renters towards home ownership. Single retirees would get increased rent assistance and low-income Australians would be given a pathway towards owning their own home, under a proposal by consulting firm KPMG. 
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Construction slump intensifies as home building hit by the sharpest decline since 2012 
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The national union movement has offered an olive branch to business, calling for a better relationship to build a stronger wages system "that works for everyone". Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) general secretary Sally McManus will tell the Melbourne Press Club on Friday that unions are ready to work with business to deliver fairer pay rises. 
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WA’s biggest homegrown bank has been relegated to the small print. As of yesterday, 124-year-old Bankwest no longer rates separately disclosed financial results in parent company Commonwealth Bank’s profit reports. 
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Police freeze $7.5m in assets of ex chief of staff to NAB boss. Police have frozen nearly $8 million in assets owned by the former chief of staff to outgoing National Australia Bank boss Andrew Thorburn including a $1 million NAB bank cheque as part of its investigation into an alleged fraud inside the bank. 
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Banking royal commission: NAB shares halt as chief, chair step down after damning Hayne report 
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NAB's 'golden handshakes' blasted as Shorten pushes for rapid change. National Australia Bank's leadership crisis has sparked fresh calls from the federal opposition and governance advisers to argue for broader change. 
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Australia on track to meet Paris climate accord target - study 
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Renewable power now accounts for one-fifth of all energy generated in Australia, the first time it has done so since the 1970s. The latest Green Energy Markets report says renewable power levels punched through the 20 per cent market share threshold in 2018 as new wind and solar farms are built and more households install rooftop solar systems. 
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Global News

US President Donald Trump has named senior Treasury Department official David Malpass to lead the World Bank. If approved, he is expected to push the bank to narrow the focus of its lending to the world's poorest countries, among other changes. 
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Apple's business model in China will probably clash with the desires of Beijing's authoritarian government, Ian Bremmer predicted on Thursday. "I think that within five to 10 years max, Apple doesn't have a model in China," Bremmer said during a presentation at the Cayman Alternative Investment Summit. Bremmer is the president and founder of consulting firm Eurasia Group. 
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The New York Times moved into the profit column in the fourth quarter, helped by gains in digital advertising and the biggest increase in online subscribers since the months after the 2016 US election. The major US daily said Wednesday its profit in the final three months of the year amounted to $55.1 million compared with a loss of $56.8 million in the same period a year earlier. 
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Twitter turned its first annual profit in 2018, but the company has a problem it doesn't want to talk about. The company said Thursday it had 321 million monthly active users in the final three months of last year, down five million from the prior quarter and nine million from the same period a year ago. 
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Airbnb is breaking into the travel market, hiring the founding head of Virgin America with a wide brief to expand the $45 billion online powerhouse. The home sharing site has moved into booking local experiences and today announced it would be building an ''end to end travel platform'' by establishing partnerships with transport companies. 
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BB&T to buy SunTrust in biggest U.S. bank deal in a decade. A more permissive regulatory environment culminated Thursday in the biggest bank merger since the 2007-2009 financial crisis, and more deals are likely, analysts and investors said. 
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General Motors reported better-than-expected quarterly profits on Wednesday following cost-cutting moves and strong sales of some higher-priced vehicles in the United States and China. Earnings in the fourth quarter came in at $2.0 billion, compared with a loss of $5.2 billion in the year-ago period due to a large one-time accounting item tied to US tax reform. 
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British Prime Minister Theresa May came away from a day in an increasingly impatient Brussels on Thursday with a pledge of renewed talks that held out some hope for a new Brexit deal, if no sign of compromise yet. 
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The Bank of England expects growth this year to be the slowest since 2009 when the economy was in recession. It is forecasting growth of 1.2% this year, down from its previous forecast of 1.7% made in November. 
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Stock News

AGL Energy will spend $25 million upgrading the Loy Yang A coal-fired power station to boost its output and efficiency. The upgrade to the turbine, to be completed by 2021, will boost output by 15 megawatts without increasing carbon emissions, AGL said. 
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Shares in AGL have slumped after the energy giant announced a $25 million upgrade to Victoria's Loy Yang coal-fired power station and renewed calls for more certainty from Canberra on future energy policy. 
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Thundelarra director Rick Crabb buys 1 million shares on-market 
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White Cliff Minerals enters trading halt pending capital raising 
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Engineering design jobs for Woodside’s Scarborough, Browse LNG projects go offshore 
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Elixinol Global Ltd (ASX:EXL) has further developed its Australian medicinal cannabis business with the purchase of a property for an integrated cultivation and manufacturing facility. The property is a unique 60-acre lot with the first stage of planning involving a 5,000-metre footprint on a secured 4.9-acre block within the area. 
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Althea Group Holdings Ltd (ASX:AGH) has entered the UK medicinal cannabis market with the acquisition of its new UK subsidiary, Althea MMJ UK Ltd. The company will be one of the first companies to enter the medicinal cannabis market in that country following the November 2018 legislative change, enabling cannabis-based products to be prescribed by doctors. 
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Qantas has formally cancelled a longstanding order for eight Airbus SE A380 superjumbo jets. "Following discussions with Airbus, Qantas has now formalised its decision not to take eight additional A380s that were ordered in 2006," a Qantas spokesman said. 
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David Jones chief executive David Thomas has unexpectedly resigned after almost 18 months in the role. The department store chain said on Thursday that Mr Thomas had departed for “personal reasons” 
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eSense signs commercial distribution agreement to supply e-Juice. esense-Lab Ltd (ASX:ESE) has signed a commercial non-exclusive distribution agreement for the supply of e-Juice products to VaporSpec for distribution in the US and Canada. The agreement calls for minimum quantities of e-Juice to be supplied in 10-millilitre bottles and will be renewed every three years. 
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Esports Mogul releases new financial hub Mogul Wallet to drive commercialisation The company has also integrated with global payment providers to support worldwide payment options. 
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Well done those that survived what was a bit of a mad week. Your reward is… bacon waffles.