Yahoo Finance's morning wrap for Thursday

Images: Getty

Good morning!

Here’s what you need to know today.

Theresa May has survived a confidence vote: The vote came just hours after her Brexit deal suffered a crushing defeat.

She won the vote by 19 points and clears the path for her to begin cross-party talks on a new Brexit deal.

Markets: Bank stocks drove Wall Street to a one-month high, while a multi-billion dollar financial technology sector deal also helped fuel the boost.

And this will help the ASX this morning. It’s expected to open higher on the back of May’s political survival and Wall Street’s gains.

Dollar: The Aussie dollar is down, buying 71.77 US cents, form 71.98 US cents yesterday.

Property: Australia could be heading for the world’s biggest house price decline in 2019, according to Fitch Ratings.

The ratings agency has warned prices could slump another 5 per cent this year, on top of the 4.8 per cent fall seen last year.

Retail shopocalypse: Another Aussie retailer has fallen victim to the e-commerce boom. Menswear retailer Ed Harry has entered administration, following a slew of other Aussie brands last year.

It doesn’t help that Aussie shopper foot traffic fell 15 per cent in the week ending December 23 and 23 per cent in the week ending December 30 last year. This could be a signal of weaker consumer sentiment, as the Westpac-Melbourne Institute Consumer Sentiment Index recently indicated.

Superannuation: Prime Minister Scott Morrison has slammed suggestions that a government-managed super fund could be a new government policy.

His comments came after Jobs Minister Kelly O’Dwyer said she would support a fund like this supported by the government’s $150 billion Future Fund.

Theft: Australian pearling business Atlas Pearls has shared details of a “minor security incident” involving the theft of un-seeded oysters.

However, while Atlas Pearls said it wouldn’t have an impact on their bottom line, they told Stockhead that the thieves probably wanted to set up their own operation.

Company tax: The Business Council of Australia has jumped on an OECD report finding that Australia has the 3rd highest effective marginal company tax rate.

“Investment fuels the productivity we need to get wages growing strongly, it creates new jobs and it breathes life into our regions. Anything that weakens Australia’s capacity to attract job creating investments is a recipe for growing disadvantage and lower wages,” Business Council chief executive Jennifer Westacott said.

“If the parliament is incapable of lowering the company tax rate for all companies, we must find other ways to boost Australia’s competitiveness . That means taking action to reform badly designed regulation, removing barriers to starting new businesses and making Australia a more attractive place for global investors.

Powerball: And the Powerball has jetted to an equal-largest record of $100 million. It comes after eight consecutive weeks of jackpotting.

– With AAP