Rio Tinto said its December-quarter iron ore shipments dipped, but the miner's full-year results for shipments will meet expectations and has the company finishing the year at the upper end of production guidance.

Full-year iron ore shipments from the Pilbara totalled 338 million tonnes, up 2 per cent from a year earlier, and at the top of its forecast of 330 million to 340 million tonnes, the company said in a statement to the Australian stock exchange.

Iron ore shipments for the three months ended December 31 fell 3 per cent to 87.4 million tonnes as output was impacted by the fire at its Cape Lambert port.

Luke Housego has the full story here.

Afterpay Touch has announced a strong jump in sales during December, recording its biggest month ever.

Underlying sales in the first half of 2018-19 was over $2.2 billion, a 240 per cent increase on the same period the year prior.

The US business processed $260 million of underlying sales in that period.

The company will release its half-year results on February 26.

Australian shares have advanced at the open this morning although most gains have been only muted.

The S&P/ASX 200 Index has risen 22.1 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 5872.1.

BHP Group is leading the market with a 0.9 per cent advance, Westpac is up 0.6 per cent and Commonwealth Bank is up 0.3 per cent.

Afterpay Touch shares have soared 11.8 per cent, Healthscope is up 3.9 per cent and Appen has risen 3.6 per cent.

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Global equity indices have traded mixed in the last 24 hours. Asian trade was soft, European trade was poor, while US indices look as though they will deliver another day in the green. This may not be such a bad thing: perhaps the differing performance across regional indices is a sign of a more discerning market place.

Panic about the global economic landscape has subsided for now, allowing traders to take a more nuanced view of the asset class. There is a degree of divergence happening again between US equities and the rest of the world – though it must be said the ASX is still following the lead of Wall Street. Optimism about fundamentals in the US is progressively being restored; that of the rest of the world is still in doubt.

Read the full 8@eight here.

Here are the overnight market highlights:

SPI futures up 33 points or 0.6% to 5821 near 8.30am AEDT

AUD +0.4% to 71.93 US cents

On Wall St: Dow +0.7% S&P 500 +0.8% Nasdaq +0.7%

Netflix said it added 8.8 million paid subscribers in the latest quarter, and said it expects to add 8.9 million more in the first quarter.

In reporting its latest results, the company said revenue in the three months ended December 31 rose 27.4 per cent to $US4.2 billion. For all of 2018, revenue reached $US15.8 billion.

Operating income in the quarter slipped to $US216 million from $US245 million a year earalier, and its operating margin declined to 5.2 per cent from 7.5 per cent a year ago. Netflix's operating margin in the third quarter of 2018 was 12 per cent.

Timothy Moore has the full story here.

Good morning and welcome to Markets Live for Friday.

Your editor today is William McInnes.

This blog is not intended as investment advice.

Fairfax Media with wires.