1. British PM Boris Johnson refuses to step down
The Tories are reportedly in open revolt as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson refuses to step down from his post, vowing to “hang on in there”.

“Late on Wednesday (Thursday AEST) Mr Johnson sacked one of his most senior and competent ministers, Michael Gove, after he led a series of private entreaties from other cabinet loyalists who told him he was no longer in command of the Conservative Party,” the AFR reports.

The inner-party turmoil has become so rife that one of Johnson’s own MPs used question time on Wednesday to ask him what it would take for the PM to resign, to which Mr Johnson responded that he intended to “keep going”.

“If there were circumstances in which I felt it was impossible for the government to go on discharging the mandate we’ve been given, or if I felt that we were being frustrated in our desire to support the Ukrainian people, then I would [resign].” he said.

2. Global recession fears mount
The good news is that petrol prices should be on the way down. The bad news is that it’s because of recession fears. World economies are worried about a global recession because of the spate of rapid interest rate rises, especially in the US and the negative effects on Europe due to the Ukraine war. This has brought down the price of iron ore, coal, and oil prices, which in turn decreases petrol prices as demand is expected to fall for these resources in a global recession.

3. Energy bill rises ahead
No such luck with energy prices, though, with businesses like Brickworks expecting a 100% increase in their power bills. That could be too pessimistic but the AFR says “the big three energy retailers – Origin Energy, AGL and EnergyAustralia – have all flagged double-digit increases next financial year, including EnergyAustralia on Tuesday, which increased power tariffs in Queensland by 18.9 per cent”. The big concern is that businesses will pass on the cost increases to consumers as higher prices.

4. Andrew Forrest delves into make-up
Fortescue billionaire Andrew Twiggy Forrest is getting into make-up, increasing his stake in BWX that owns Sukin and Go To. Fortescue and Forrest are famous for mining iron ore but in recent times Twiggy has piled his money into green energy projects and other renewables businesses, but he’s more diversified than that, raising his ownership of BWX to 19.9% in a business started by young female entrepreneur Zoe Foster Blake. The company has been struggling but this move by Forrest should see changes happen. The share price rose 16% on the news.

5. ASX to rise as oil dips
ASX futures were up 38 points or 0.59% to 6531 near 6.30am AEST, with the AUD -0.3% to 67.79 US cents.

On Wall St at 4pm: Dow +0.2% S&P 500 +0.4% Nasdaq +0.4%.

In Europe: Stoxx 50 +1.9% FTSE +1.2% CAC +2% DAX +1.6%.

Brent crude -1.9% to $US100.84 a barrel.

10-year yield: US 2.93% Australia 3.40%.