澳洲新闻 (ABC新闻快递) 2016-03-09（在线收听）

Good morning everyone. Leading finance news this morning. Australian share market participants and regulators, I ask you questions about the 24% surge in Fortescue Metals Group's share price. That took place the day before it announced a possible joint merger deal with Brazilian mining giant Valley. Now Fortescue Metals Group has announced it had struck a non-binding deal for Brazil's Valley, to buy a 5.15% stake in the company. The payer plans to sell 4 billion US dollars a year of blended Australian and Brazilian iron ore to China. The move is already being scrutinized by regulators. And now Fortescue Metals Group is being * playing its massive share price gain on Monday.

China's exports have seen the sharpest drop in almost 7 years, adding to concerns over the health of the world's second largest economy. Exports dropped sharply by about 25% from a year earlier, while imports fell nearly 14%. The weak data comes on the heels of Beijing registering the slowest economic growth in 25 years.

Let's go to the global markets now. A couple of hours before the close, the Dow was down 0.2%, the Nasdaq and S&P 500 are both down around 0.5%, while in London the FTSE fell 0.9%. Checking commodity prices. WTC is trading at 37 US dollars a barrel. Tapis Crude is at 42 US dollars a barrel. And gold is trading at 1261 US dollars an ounce. The Australian dollars is currently buying 75 US cents, 68 Euro cents, and 52 Pence Sterling.