Banks will dominate the Australian half year reporting as the interim season steps up this week.

Gold futures ended lower on Friday, despite a small kick upwards in the value of the greenback.

Like metals, oil prices finished lower Friday on the day and the week as rising interest rates and the strong US jobs report, plus the sell off in equities, took their toll.

Apple shares were a touch easier in after hours trading despite reporting a record holiday quarter, buoyed by strong demand for its new generation of iPhones.

Facebook shares fell 4% in after hours trading on Wednesday because it said people were not as ‘engaged’ as they were and less time spent on the platform, the shares then rose to end Wednesday up 3.5% as investors realised the drop in time spent was a rounding error.

Amazon shares rose strongly in after hours trading, but shares in Alphabet (Google) fell after both companies revealed 4th quarter results after a choppy day’s trading on Wall Street.

America’s oil production has hit 10 million barrels a day much faster than previous estimates. The news was absorbed by the market, despite the nervousness after Tuesday’s big sell-off.

As expected chair, Janet Yellen kept the Federal Reserve on course for a further interest rate rise in March in her last meeting.

Don’t expect any change in interest rates from the Reserve Bank next Tuesday at its first monetary policy meeting of the year and don’t listen or believe what you might read from some commentators who say the latest inflation figures show cost pressures are starting to rise.

Australian healthcare stocks face a big sell off today after Wall Street sold off for a second straight session on Tuesday, weighed down by heavy losses in health-care and energy shares.

The National Australia Bank says its latest survey of Australian business conditions shows December was another month of buoyant activity, while business confidence also lifted, ending a recent negative trend.

The global bond sell off accelerated overnight Monday – driving more confusion about the sustainability of the great Wall Street stockmarket boom.

Now according to many in Australia, we should be following Donald Trump’s tax cuts, especially for business.

The confusion in the Trump Administration over whether it wants a strong or weak US dollars helped breath new life into much of the commodity markets last week, especially metals. Cobalt and nickel rose, gold bumped higher, copper fell on Friday but ended higher over the week and zinc enjoyed a strong rise.

Moderate December quarter inflation data out on Wednesday won’t change the thinking of the Reserve Bank which will be keeping interest rates on hold for much, if not all of the coming year.

The ASX is looking at a solid half a per cent gain at the opening later this morning after a 30 point gain on the ASX 200 futures market on Friday night.

A big week for Australia, the US, Europe, Japan, China and other major economies with meetings, survey results and important quarterly data due for release. It is in fact the first major data/meeting week for the year for many countries.

US oil prices rose on Friday, thanks to another bout of US dollar weakness and despite a sharp rise in the number of rigs looking for oil across America.

America’s 4th-quarter earnings season hits top pace this week with nearly 120 companies in the S&P 500 down to report results and that will be dominated in Wednesday and Thursday by the rest of the so-called FAANGs Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, Facebook and an extra in the shape of Microsoft (Netflix reported last Monday).

The US dollar hit new three-year lows overnight, gold and oil hit multi-year highs, copper surged and Wall Street wobbled, then settled after US Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin said a weaker dollar is good for American trade.

Japan has joined China in reporting what can only be described as a rip snorting set of trade figures for 2017.

Not what Warren Buffett wants to hear? Talk of ‘price’ competition coming from a full service major US airline in the shape of United Continental?

American investors couldn’t get enough of Resmed shares overnight Tuesday – the chased the stock so hard that at one stage it was outperforming Netflix. In early trading resmed shares were up 17.7% against a 13.2% gain for Netflix.

One of the so-called FAANG stocks has confirmed investor faith in their outperformance – Netflix says it added a record. 8.3 million subscribers in total in the three months to December – the highest quarter gains in its history and exceeding its own forecasts.