Believe it or not but the overnight futures market has the ASX 200 opening flat this morning, despite another surge on Wall Street overnight that saw the Dow briefly breach the 23,000 level for the first time in its 121-year history.

Netflix justified the bullish upgrades on Friday by JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs in its third quarter report this morning (Tuesday) to reveal a surge in subscriber numbers, especially international customers.

Economists, central bankers, politicians and many in business are wondering why inflation remains weak in major economies. Yesterday we had signs that the recent weakening in inflationary pressures in China might be on the turn.

Oil prices ended at a two-week high Friday, with US crude recording its biggest weekly gain for a month as the US dollar fell for the day and the week.

Weak underlying US inflation for September has again raised questions abut the path of US interest rates, and it seems Wall Street is picking up positives from that scepticism.

Warren Buffett’s two favourite banks helped kick off the US third quarter reporting season on Friday, producing contrasting results for the three months to September, which in turn received the appropriate stockmarket receptions.

A big week for markets around the world, including Australia with the September jobs data and some big quarterly production reports, important data from China, the start of that country’s important 19th National Congress that will produce a new leadership group, two speeches in the US by Fed chair Janet Yellen and other Fed members, more unpredictability from President Trump and a step up in the pace of America’s third quarter earnings reports.

No worries from China’s trade data for September – a surge in imports telling us that the economy is doing well. Exports rose by less than expected, but instead of that generating the usual warnings of gloom, markets took that news in their stride.

So much for all that talk about weak demand for steel commodities from China – especially iron ore and coal. Trade data for September out on Friday showed a record 103 million tonnes of iron ore and a three year high of more than 27 million tonnes of coal were imported last month (see separate story).

Thanks to some bullish broker upgrades on Friday night in the US, there’s an awful lot riding on Netflix’s third quarter figures on Tuesday morning, Sydney time.

Weakish third quarter results from banking giants, JP Morgan and Citigroup helped knock Wall Street off its record perch overnight Thursday.

Seaborne iron ore prices fell below $US60 a tonne on Wednesday as more production restrictions were reported from China’s steelmaking hub of Tangshan in the northeast of the country.

On Tuesday the National Australia Bank was all upbeat on the basis of another strong reading about the continuing strength of the Australian economy – with most sectors doing well, with the exception of retailing.

Wal-Mart has punctured all the dire warnings about the dangers posed to retailers in the US (and elsewhere) from Amazon and its takeover of US high end grocery chain, WholeFoods.

Australian business conditions stayed rock solid in September, while confidence edged up following the big decline last month, the latest monthly survey from the National Australia Bank confirmed yesterday.

The damage to insurance companies worldwide continues to rise as the accounting for the impact of the three terrible hurricanes and Mexican earthquakes continues. And on top of these damaging events, US insurers and their reinsurers now have to content with the multi-billion dollar fires in northern California. Thousands of homes and businesses – including hotels, winers and associated infrastructure – have been destroyed by a series of fires that have rolled through the wine country in Sonoma County, near San Francisco.

In a move that could be bullish for oil prices, Saudi Arabia has cut the amount of oil available for export – and told the world about it.