The ASX is heading for a 60 point plus fall this morning after a wave of selling in shares, bonds and commodities swept markets lower on Tuesday as uncertainty about events in Italy and Spain drove investors to sell.

More evidence from the US that companies do not spend tax cuts on paying staff more or boosting jobs. They use the cash from the Trump tax cuts and booming profits to buyback shares at an increasing rate and boost dividends.

The coming week will see the usual end of month/start of month data dump for global markets to digest, led by US May jobs and wages data on Friday, and the start of the run up to Australia’s March quarter GDP figures next week.

Oil prices fell sharply on Friday after OPEC and Russia indicated they may raise output this year to offset the impact of rising prices. That saw oil prices suffer their biggest fall for six weeks.

For yet another quarter it sees solid earnings beats (helped this time by the continuing benefits of the Trump tax cuts), have no lasting impact on share prices for US companies reporting for the three months to March which basically ends this week.

The local market will open weaker today after a fall in the ASX futures market on Friday night and one factor investors will be watching will be a sharp fall Friday and last week in Chinese iron ore prices, the most important commodity price for Australian investors.

Sharemarkets will trade blind today, tonight and tomorrow with America on its three day Memorial Day break, meaning investors will not get a real lead as to sentiment until Tuesday night, Wednesday morning.

The National Australia Bank has bowed to the reality of recent economic data on wages, jobs and inflation and pushed its forecast for the next interest rate rise out to 2019 from late this year, but they are still around a year short of the forecast made earlier this month by the AMP’s Dr Shane Oliver for a rate rise in 2020 – but with the continuing chance of a rate ‘cut’.

Retailers will dominate America’s first-quarter earnings season last leg this week, along with the odd food company and tech group.

On the surface it seems China and the US have reached some sort of accommodation to try and take the sting out of their trade dispute, but according to the Financial Times and other reports there’s no real agreement – just a series of agreements, with one major sticking point left unmentioned.

China-US trade and interest rates will grab the headlines this week with the Fed also taking centre stage after the yield on the key 10-year bond hit a seven year high of more than 3.1% last week.

Offshore markets will make a tentative start late today after Friday’s less than inspiring end to the week.

Global oil prices recoiled from the $US80 a barrel level hit on Thursday, but still ended the week with a solid rise.

Gold finished a week that many investors won’t quickly forget as they were reminded that they should watch movements in US bond yields more closely.