The Australian market looks set to open lower after falls on Wall Street overnight.

At 0735 AEDT on Thursday, the March share price index futures contract was DOWN nine points at 5,278.

Early on Thursday morning the minutes of the US Federal Reserve December policy meeting were released and showed that most members were optimistic about the US economic recovery.

At the December meeting the Fed decided to taper its bond purchases by $US10 billion to $US75 billion a month starting in January.

In Australia on Thursday, official retail spending and building approvals figures for November will be released.

In Australia, the market on Thursday finished flat as weakness among mining stocks dampened earlier gains.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index lost one point, or 0.02 per cent, at 5,316.0..

The broader All Ordinaries index lost 0.1 point, at 5,318.7.