No move on interest rates from the Reserve Bank yesterday, so the rate rise speculation spills over into 2018, or 2019 in the case of a forecast from Westpac.

Iron ore prices are now back in a bull market phase with a sharp rise on Monday taking the rise since the lows of late October to more than 20%.

The Reserve Bank board will complete more than a year of doing nothing about its official cash rate when it passes on a rate move at its final meeting for 2017 today.

Commodities started December with a surge on Friday, led by November’s star, iron ore. Copper, lead, zinc and gold also reported gains on Friday, but many still eased over the week.

A busy week here and offshore with interest rate decisions, US jobs data, US tax, Brexit meetings, a possible partial closure of the US government, the citizenship and same sex marriage bill in Federal Parliament and GDP reports, especially here on Wednesday.

A big week for the Australian economy – the country’s GDP is expected to have regained the above trend 3% level (as forecast several months ago) when the September quarter National Accounts are released on Wednesday, a day after when the Reserve Bank board will complete a year of doing nothing about its official cash rate.

Oil futures started December climbing on Friday, after a group of major oil producers agreed on Thursday in Vienna to continue production caps through 2018.

Friday night’s small fall in the futures market of around 6 points should reverse quickly when trading resumes later this morning on the ASX 200 after the Trump tax changes moved closer to becoming law at the weekend.

Wall Street soared on the final day of trading as prospects for the US Senate passing the huge Trump tax bill improved.

A mixed month for commodities with iron ore a surprise star, while oil was solid but other metals were weaker.

Oil prices went nowhere in the wake of news that OPEC and some non-member producers such as Russia had agreed to extend their production cap to the end of 2018.

Private business investment is well on its way to reporting an annual rise for the first time in at least three years, judging by another rise in expected capex spending for the 2017-18 financial year, according to figures released yesterday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Australia’s big four banks are about to get a modest bonus from New Zealand’s regulators – an easing in the loan to valuation ratios for home loans.

So on the face of it, the news flow overnight was bullish, a stronger US third quarter GD second estimate of 3.3%, rising optimism on President Trump’s tax cut package and solid optimism among investors, or so it seemed until sharp falls in the collection tech tech giants known as the FAANG stocks whacked the Nasdaq.

Judging by his written testimony to his confirmation hearing in Washington overnight, you have to wonder if Donald Trump’s nominee for the chair of the US Federal Reserve is the right man – he’s offering more of the same as we saw with Janet Yellen.

Even though gold and silver eased on Friday and for the week, it was a confirmation that the mini- resources surge that seemed over a couple of weeks ago, has returned – and without much in the way of speculative help from Chinese investors who spent most of last week coping with major changes to financial rules by worried regulators.

No let up this week with investors confronted by decisions and data on oil prices, interest rates, economic growth, Trumps’ tax policy, inflation, as well as business investment and building approvals here in Australia.

Rising Chinese steel prices helped bolster iron ore prices with a 4% rise last week in something of a surprise with talk of a slowing in construction activity.

The direction of oil prices over the next few months will be set this week – not by the continuing disruption to a major crude-oil pipeline in the US, but the key OPEC meeting this Thursday.

So will Australian investors take a punt and push the ASX higher later today after trading resumes even though the overnight futures market was sluggish in Friday night’s short session down a point fall at the close?

The ASX is heading for a sharp fall when trading resumes this morning after Chinese stockmarkets fell sharply yesterday, suffering their worst day for 17 months.