There will be a quiet start to this week for markets, despite another record setting finish on Wall Street on Saturday morning, our time.
Public holidays tonight in the key US and UK markets will mean investors won’t be rushing to do anything dramatic, in case they make a mistake and look silly.
The elections in Ukraine and in the EU will also be factors that will make investors cautious.
Our market will start virtually flat today after the share futures contract ended with a gain of just four points at the weekend.
The Aussie dollar ended lower on 92.31 in US trading and major commodity prices were mixed, with oil having a solid rise for the week.
In the US shares ended up by between 0.7% and 2.3%, Eurozone shares were up 1.2%, Japanese shares added 2.6%, Chinese shares 0.4% and Australian shares just 0.3%.
Three straight days of advances last week saw the Standard & Poor’s 500 index rise above 1900 points for the first time on Friday and close there.
As result of Friday’s gains, the Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq are now all in positive territory for the year.
The S&P 500 closed 8.04 points, or 0.4% higher, at 1,900.53 for a rise of 1.2% over the week.
The Dow added 63.19 points, or 0.4%, to 16,606.27 and finished the week 0.7% higher.
The Nasdaq Composite ended the day up a strong 31.47 points, or 0.8%, at 4,185.81, for a 2.3% gain over the week.
And the Russell 2000 index of small cap stocks also rallied, gaining 12 points, or 1.1%, to 1,126.18.
The small-cap index gained 2.1% over the week.
After Friday’s close all three major US stock indexes are now showing gains for the year.
The Dow and the Nasdaq are up 0.2% each, and the S&P 500 is up 2.8% for the year so far.
Bonds ended slightly higher than the previous week – the US 10 year security’s yield ended on 2.53%.
In Australia, the 0.3% rise in the ASX 200 over the week came despite weaknesses in iron ore prices, banks and mining stocks at different times.
The ASX 200 Index closed at 5492 points, while the All Oridinaries Index gained 0.2% to 5470.3.
On Friday, the ASX 200 added 0.2%, thanks in part to solid debut from the biggest float so far in 2014, Spotless.
In fact Spotless Group shares rose 7.2% to end at $1.72. Shares in Intueri Education Group of New Zealand jumped 8.7% to $2.37.
But Genworth Mortgage ended at $3, up from the $2.65 issue price.
Telstra shares rose 5.4% to a nine-year high of $5.38.
Shares in three of the big four banks rose.
The Commonwealth Bank was up 1.1% to $81.31, the National Australia Bank added 0.3% to $33.57, and the ANZ Banking Group lifted 2% to $33.60.
Westpac shares though fell 0.3% to $34.19.
BHP Billiton lost 1.1% to $37.65, while Rio Tinto shares lost 1.2% to $60.54.
And takeover target, Treasury Wine Estates, was the best-performing stock, climbing 26.7% to $5.17 after the company revealed it rejected a takeover bid from private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts.
