As expected the Reserve Bank of NZ joined its Australian counterpart this morning in not changing interest rates, leaving the Official Cash Rate (OCR) unchanged at 1.75%.

China’s foreign exchange reserves hit $US4 trillion in the second quarter of 2014. Yesterday they fell below $US3 trillion for the first time in nearly six years, despite the country generating a trade surplus last year of more than half a billion dollars.

The Reserve Bank held interest rates steady yesterday, as expected, but forecast a rebound in economic growth from the fall in the September quarter GDP.

There’s nothing for the Reserve Bank at its first board meeting of the year today from yesterday’s retail sales. On the face of it the seasonally adjusted fall 0.1% was weak and less than the market’s expectations for a 0.3% rise.

Gloomy news from both the New York Times – its revenue and profits sank in 2016 (and the paper is now marginally profitable as a result), despite the Donald Trump-inspired record last quarter surge in digital subscriptions.

The Australian December half profit reporting season will start to ramp up this week with 16 major companies reporting, while the US 4th quarter season tips over last week’s peak and starts easing, though not before we get a slew of media results and early retailing figures.

A trio of central banks will dominate affairs this week so far as investors are concerned here, across the Tasman and in India. While the December 2016 earnings season continues here, in Europe and Asia, and starts easing in the US.

Trump jitters dominated markets over the last week, sending them higher, and lower and then higher.

Gold had its best week in seven months as investors worried about President Trump, his approach to policy making, a stronger than expected jobs report for the US for January, and a weaker US dollar.

Amazon shares fell 4% in after hours trading after the online giant revealed this morning that it had its biggest ever December quarter holiday sales, which fell short of overly optimistic expectations from investment analysts.

The dollar jumped, economists were shocked and the sharemarkets ignored the news that Australia had its largest monthly trade surplus on record December, with the trade balance soaring to a surplus of $3.51 billion, from a surplus of $1.2 billion in November (both seasonally adjusted).

As widely expected, the US Federal Reserve has kept interest rates unchanged, meaning it could be the central bank’s March meeting where the question of a rate rise goes live.

The surge in commodity prices slowed sharply in the month of January, according to the Reserve Bank’s Commodity Price Index for the month, but the annual rate accelerated.

Apple surprised with record sales and record iPhone sales in the December quarter, the company’s first of its 2016-17 financial year.

January started well and ended with a bit of a whimper as markets lost momentum, and gains – but retained much of the rise seen from November 8 to December 31.

Warren Buffett and his Berkshire Hathaway fund managers and insurers have certainly been active. The fund managers and Buffet have spent billions in buying new shares since the November 8 election of Donald Trump.