Global sharemarkets were mixed over last week while commodities, led by gold, oil and iron ore fell and currencies and bonds were steady to slightly stronger.
Weakening oil prices were the major influence for most markets during the week.
Japanese shares stood out again with another strong week as the yen fell to new seven year lows against the greenback.
Helping market sentiment were very confident reports Prime Minister Abe plans a snap election and will postpone the second part of a sales tax increase.
That saw the Tokyo market jump 3.6% over the week as a result.
Chinese shares were also again stronger with the Shanghai market up 2.5% as the start of the Shanghai-Hong Kong share market link was confirmed for later today.
US shares had a much quieter week up just 0.4% and not looking all that confident, with the Nasdaq the best performer of the three major indexes.
The S&P 500 ended the week at a new all time high at the end of a fourth week of gains. It was the index’s 41st record close of the year.
European shares were unchanged, not helped by renewed worries regarding Ukraine.
Inflation came in at 0.4% last month, unchanged from the earlier report and the eurozone economies saw slightly growth in the third quarter of 0.2%, thanks to strong performances by Spain and Greece.
The German economy eked out a small rise of 0.1%, while France grew for the first time this year, but Italy again contracted.
Australian shares fell 1.7%. in a mostly negative week.
Bond yields rose slightly in the US, but fell elsewhere.
The Aussie dollar managed a small rise and ended around 87.50 USc.
The Dow fell 18.05 points, or 0.1% on Friday to 17,634.74, the S&P 500 added 0.49 points, or 0.02%, to 2,039.82 and the Nasdaq Composite added 8.40 points, or 0.18%, to 4,688.54.
For the week the Dow and S&P 500 rose 0.4% and the Nasdaq climbed 1.2%.
The Australian sharemarket ended higher on Friday, but fell over the week, ending a run of four straight weeks of gains.
The ASX200 added 11.6 points, or 0.2%, on Friday, while the All Ords rose 10.3 points, or 0.2%.
Over the week, the ASX200 fell a nasty 94.8 points, or 1.7%, to end the week on 5454.3.
The All Ordinaries dipped 88.3 points, or 1.6%, to close at 5433.8.
