Donald Trump continues to help the New York Times, one of his ‘real’ media irritants, towards a successful transition to the digital future, judging by the third quarter report from the company’s parent, the New York Times Co overnight.

There’s renewed life in the building industry and the trade account has picked up and remains strongly in surplus, according to reports for September from the Australian Bureau of Statistics yesterday.

Back in the early 1990s, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand was a pioneer, a pacesetter in adopting a specific inflation target and the means to oversee that at the central bank that its peers in other countries eventually followed over the next decade or so.

In just over a year’s time China will finally achieve what other countries now take as routine – the national collection and compilation of economic statistics.

No change at the Fed – certainly a rate rise at December’s two day meeting is now locked in – and tonight’s jobs report will underline that decision. And Donald Trump’s nomination of current Fed governor, Jerome Powell to replace Janet Yellen and adds weight to the continuity of policy from the Fed after he takes over from next February.

A Sydney court case hearing a challenge to US US network, CBS buying control of Ten has prevented the deal happening, but in the US life goes on and CBS has revealed what is at its core a solid third quarter set of figures which in its composition underline the differences between the health of the Australian TV sector and that in the US.

Facebook’s third quarter figures confirm that it (and Google) are destroying the future for established media such as newspapers, TV, cable and even newer technologies such as streaming video (and grabbing it for themselves).

As expected the US Federal Reserve sat on its hands at its two day meeting which ended early Thursday, Sydney time with the next rate rise now expected at its December meeting.

Remember all those 30 year anniversary stories about the big 87 crash and those pundits worrying about the vulnerability of markets to a repeat now?

Nickel, oil and copper starred in October among major commodities.

What a difference a day makes – this time on Monday the local market was on the brink of a solid start with the ASX 200 futures market showing a 34 point gain – and the market followed suit with the index up 15.9 points.

September quarter results from Apple and Facebook this week will complete what has so far been a stellar reporting period for America’s tech giants. Both Apple (judging by a 3.6% price surge on Friday) and Facebook (up 4.2%) are widely expected to join Netflix, Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Microsoft and Intel in reporting figures that top market forecasts.

The most important events in global finance this week will be the two day meeting of the US Federal Reserve’s Open Markets Committee and the jobs report for October.

Oil prices dominated commodity markets last week while copper, gold and iron ore all saw something of a small sell-off.

The Australian market is heading for a break out start to trading this week when the ASX re-opens this morning.

A big week ahead with news from central banks, the latest US jobs data, more US tech and other profits, the start of month surveys of global manufacturing and some economic figures for Australia for September.

Amid all the records and ear record trading activity on Wall Street, we are witnessing a bigger story – the slow collapse of America’s biggest manufacturer, the once mighty General Electric.

Watch for a big night on Wall Street tonight (Friday) after solid quarterly reports from Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet (Google) and even Twitter. But Mattel, the maker of Barbie and other toys, saw its shares slump 27% at one stage after quarterly sales slumped 13% and the company turned in a surprise loss.

The antics of North Korean bully Kim Jong-un and his rantings, threats, nuclear tests and missile launches have not the negative impact on South Korea’s economy or its economic performance, that many economists claimed it would judging by a rebound in GDP reported for the three months to September.