The big banks are tipped to hold back some of the benefit of any official interest rate cut from their customers as the lenders try to ease pressure on their profit margins.

Market watchers tip a rate cut could come as early as the next meeting of the board of the Reserve Bank on May 7, following the release of weaker-than-expected inflation numbers on Wednesday.

Experts say any rate cut occurring during federal election campaign would inevitably see the big banks come under pressure from both sides of politics to pass on the benefits to borrowers.

But Martin North, the founder of Digital Finance Analytics, said he expected the big banks to pass on only some of a cut to their variable rate mortgage holders as they grappled with higher funding costs.

John Collett has the full story here.

Online retail giant Amazon more than doubled profit over the past year, smashing analyst expectations as it revealed plans to speed up shipping times of its products.

On Thursday afternoon US time, the company said it booked $US59.7 billion ($85.1 billion) in sales in the first three months of 2019. First-quarter net income soared 125 per cent from a year ago to reach US3.6 billion, its highest profit ever.

Analysts had predicted earnings per share of about $US4.70 -- far below the $US7.09 per share Amazon was able to report. Amazon shares have gained 23 per cent since the start of the year. They ticked up slightly in extended trade on Thursday to $US1,902.

Growth was driven by Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company's cloud computing offer. AWS sales were up 41 per cent at $US7.7 billion, generating half of Amazon's operating profits.

Emma Koehn has the full story here.

China's decision to boost its domestic thermal coal mining industry has raised hopes the country's unofficial restrictions on Australian imports may soon end.

Australian thermal coal has faced lengthy customs delays at Chinese ports and debate has raged on whether the restrictions were driven by political or economic motivations.

When restrictions were first reported, some experts suggested China was punishing Australia for its ban on telecommunications company Huawei.

However, coal miners said restrictions were frequently put in place to allow Chinese domestic operators "time to shine" and build them up by pressuring Australian producers.

Cole Latimer has the full story here.

Australian shares are almost back in the green following a firm rebound just after 11am.

The S&P/ASX 200 Index is down 5.8 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 6376.3.

BHP Group is still weighing, down 0.9 per cent, Fortescue Metals Group has slid 4.4 per cent and Woodside Petroleum is down 1.4 per cent.

Flight Centre Travel Group is down 12.5 per cent, Fortescue Metals Group has slid 4.1 per cent and Domino's is down 3.9 per cent.

Flight Centre has slashed its underlying profit guidance for 2019 by more than 14 per cent due to subdued trading in its Australian business during the key holiday booking months of May and June.

The profit downgrade came as workers filed a federal court claim against the company alleging the company had systematically underpaid its staff.

Flight Centre on Wednesday said the subdued trading conditions had coincided with a period of "significant disruption" for the company including introducing a new wage model for it front-end sales staff, an ongoing review of its shop network and putting in new sales systems.

Flight Centre managing director Graham "Skroo" Turner said the overall results would be disappointing.

Sarah Danckert has the full story here.

A dwindling group of economists said the Reserve Bank would not cut interest rates during the election campaign, saying employment and wages could still improve and tax cuts would better stimulate spending.

Fuelled by lower than expected inflation data, which was driven by lower electricity, petrol, education and health costs, the futures market is betting on a 67 per cent chance of a rate cut in May and the likelihood of a cut by June was almost certain.

But many economists have already suggested that cutting rates by 25 basis points, regardless of whether it was during an election, would not have as big an impact on stimulating spending as the government's announced tax cuts.

Matthew Cranston and I have the full story here.

Woolworths' $1.7 billion off-market share buyback is expected to be heavily oversubscribed by retirees and superannuation funds chasing franking credits before mooted changes to the law come into force.

Analysts have warned the buyback is likely to be heavily scaled back, with only a small portion of shares tendered bought back, due to overwhelming demand from investors attracted to the highly tax-effective nature of the program.

The buyback, funded from proceeds from the sale of Woolworths' fuel business, will be based on a tender, with investors bidding to sell shares at a discount of between 10 per cent and 14 per cent below the volume weighted average price over the five days before the May 24 closing date.

Sue Mitchell has the full story here.

Australian shares have opened lower, weighed by the major miners and banks, all with only modest losses.

The S&P/ASX 200 Index is trading 14.2 points, or 0.2 per cent, lower at 6367.9.

BHP Group is down 0.6 per cent, Macquarie Group has slid 1.2 per cent and Fortescue Metals Group has tumbled 3.3 per cent.

Flight Centre Travel Group is down 10.3 per cent, Domain Holdings has slid 3.6 per cent and Whitehaven Coal it down 3.3 per cent

SPONSORED POST

The ASX is poised to open the day slightly in the red after a mixed day on Wall Street, writes Kyle Rodda.

It's been a mixed 24 hours for global markets. A series of conflicting messages are being delivered to traders, after the release of some major corporate reports in the past 24-48 hours. Market participants are truly in the meatiest part of earnings season now.

The trader's eye has been fixed on earnings from US tech and industrial giants yesterday and overnight; with the former, thanks to Facebook and Microsoft, beating expectations overall, but with the latter, courtesy of Caterpillar and 3M, undershooting consensus estimates. It's all culminated in a high activity, but effectively flat, day for the S&P500, which has added trade 0.1 per cent.

Read the full 8@eight here.

SPI futures down 5 points to 6364 points
AUD down to 70.09 US cents at 5.15am AEDT
On Wall St at 2.50pm: Dow -0.5% S&P 500 -0.04% Nasdaq +0.2%
In New York, BHP +0.1% Rio -0.2% Atlassian +2.7%
In Europe: Stoxx 50 -0.3% FTSE -0.5% DAX -0.2% CAC -0.3%
Spot gold +0.1% to $US1277.60 an ounce
Brent crude +0.4% to $US74.87 a barrel
US oil -0.2% to $US65.77 a barrel
Iron ore -0.05% to $US93.50 a tonne
Dalian iron ore +0.6% to 624 yuan
LME aluminium -0.8% to $US1857 a tonne
LME copper -1.3% to $US6364 a tonne
2-year yield: US 2.33% Australia 1.31%
5-year yield: US 2.33% Australia 1.37%
10-year yield: US 2.53% Australia 1.78% Germany -0.01%
US-Australia 10-year yield gap: 75 basis points