Australian shares have rallied through the early afternoon as the losses from the index heavyweights soften.

The S&P/ASX 200 Index is down 23.2 points, or 0.4 per cent, at 5645.2.

One quarter of soft economic activity does not make a trend, so chatter about the Reserve Bank of Australia being forced to switch its bias to interest rate cuts is premature.

The most disappointing aspect of the weak September quarter gross domestic product figures was a pullback in consumer spending on discretionary items, causing household consumption growth to slow to 0.3 per cent - in line with GDP.

The Bank of Queensland has lost its second big executive in as many days, with group executive of BOQ business Brendan White resigning to become chief executive of ASX-listed Cash Converters.

Mr White's departure follows the resignation of BOQ chief executive Jon Sutton on Wednesday, who is leaving the lender to focus on his long-term health following a triple bypass surgery earlier this year.

Francesco De Ferrari has at least one important credential needed to take over the running of Australia's largest wealth management company, AMP. He is a self-confessed "glass half full" kind of guy.

It would be even better if he had a glass quarter full attitude. Being on the cusp of a potentially organisation-changing moment when Commissioner Kenneth Hayne releases recommendations for the industry, a big lick of optimism will come in handy.

Australian shares have dipped further through the morning, dropping particularly at 11:30 following the release of the trade balance and retail sales figures.

The S&P/ASX 200 Index is down 33.9 points, or 0.6 per cent, at 5634.5, a 22-month low for the market.

We've just had two pieces of economic data come through. The Aussie dollar's reaction has been fairly muted so far.

Australia's trade balance for October printed at $2,316 million, below the $3,000 million the market had been expecting and a fall from September's revised $2,940 million.

Australian retail sales came in line with expectations, rising 0.3 per cent during October and improving on revised 0.1 per cent growth during September.

Saudi Arabia, Russia and other members of the OPEC+ group recommended an oil production cut, defying a Twitter plea from President Donald Trump to keep the taps open, but their meeting didn't agree on how big any reduction should be.

The group secured the participation of Russia for six months of output curbs starting in January, Oman's Oil Minister Mohammed Al Rumhy told reporters in Vienna as he left the meeting on Wednesday.

Tissue and personal hygiene product maker Asaleo Care will sell its capital hungry, low margin Australian consumer tissue business to Solaris Paper for $180 million and focus on more profitable divisions like personal care.

The sale to Solaris Paper, which will include brands such as Sorbent toilet and facial tissues, Handee Ultra paper towels, and Deeko serviettes and disposable tableware, is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2019.

Solaris Paper already owns toilet paper brand Emporia and tissue company Livi.

Liz Main has the full story here.

As keen the Bank of Canada is to lift interest rates to neutral, it has signalled that the path forward is now less clear, strategists say.

Overnight the Bank of Canada's policy committee voted to hold its key rate, as expected, at 1.75 per cent, adding that it "continues to judge that the policy interest rate will need to rise into a neutral range to achieve the inflation target".

Australian shares have dipped slightly at the open with some very mild losses from the index heavyweights.

The S&P/ASX 200 Index is down 17 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 5651.4.