The latest National Australia Bank business survey showed business conditions picked up in September as sales and profits rebounded while a marked rise in forward orders pointed to further growth in coming months.

A story on the Financial Times website overnight gave an early tip about yesterday’s surprise decision by BP to dump its controversial two-well drilling campaign in the Great Australia Bight.

The House of Representatives economic committee talks to lead financial regulators, APRA, ASIC and the ACCC on Friday.

Warren Buffett has revealed his 2015 income tax details to refute claims by Donald Trump that he, Buffett, had also used tax loss carryforwards to protect income.

The US third quarter earnings season kicks off this week, with aluminium group Alcoa Inc set to release its third-quarter results before US markets open Tuesday night, our time.

Markets will be watching today’s second US Presidential debate after the dramatic weekend that saw large parts of Donald Trump’s Republican Party reject its candidate.

Normally the first monthly and quarterly releases of economic data from China would dominate attention this week, while the start of the US third quarter earnings season would also be a contender for equal attention.

Gold futures lost ground for a sixth straight session on Friday night, our time, ending up with a 5% fall for the week, the biggest weekly slide in 3-years.

US oil futures eased back under $US50 a barrel on Friday night, but still ended up more than 3% for the week – a direct contrast to gold which fell more than 5%.

In 2008, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway spent $US2.1 billion to help finance the $US23 billion takeover of Wrigley by mars Inc, the privately held confectionary and pet food giant.

Just imagine – you are one of the highest profiled tech companies in the world – a contemporary of Facebook, Snapchat, LinkedIn and Instagram and no one wants you – despite a roll call of the rich and powerful – Apple, Disney, Google/Alphabet, Comcast, 21st Century Fox, – being mentioned as possible suitors. In fact it now seems all have passed on having a crack at grabbing Twitter and making it their own.

APRA, the lead financial regulator, has warned about potential problems emerging in commercial property insurance, joining the Reserve Bank which has been concerned about lending to the sector now for more than year (especially to the apartments).

Oil rose, Wall Street rose, the US services sector – the economy’s heart – is beating more strongly and gold again fell as investors moved closer to acceptance that a rate rise is very likely in December from the Fed.

Retail sales grew nicely in August and car sales rose again in September as we saw more evidence of a solid pace of economic activity.

It is going to be a bad day for Australian gold stocks and their supporters with a big sell off in store.

It was an unrealistic economist or analyst who expected the Reserve Bank to cut interest rates at the central bank’s board meeting chaired by Governor Phil Lowe for the first time.

One reason why the Reserve Bank is feeling a bit more confident about the economy (but more than a bit concerned about what lies ahead for the apartment sector of the property industry) is the continuing strength of the dwelling building industry.

Bradken (BKN) share surged more than 30% yesterday after the board agreed to a takeover offer by Hitachi Construction Machinery, and shares in Henderson (HGG) also jumped sharply after its done deal with US fund manager, Janus Capital Group.

Banks, the October Reserve Bank board meeting and September jobs reports from the US, along with the trials and tribulations of Deutsche Bank will dominate the week.

It was only a small, second level statistic from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, but the four year high in the latest job vacancies data will reassure the Reserve Bank in its greater confidence about the outlook for the Australian economy.

So what will this new ‘agreement’ entail – a freeze, a production cut, or in reality Saudi Arabia cutting its production to allow other OPEC members, such as Iran, Nigeria, Venezuela and Libya to continue producing at current or higher rates?

The surge in investment came despite any detail about the so-called agreement struck by OPEC countries and Russia in Algiers on Wednesday night.

Like a rabbit in the spotlight, the board of US bank, Wells Fargo has belatedly launched an independent investigation into the firm’s retail banking sales practices, the source of the $US185 million in fines for more than 2 million fake customer accounts and credit cards and a rising tide of criticism of the bank, its management and especially long time Chairman and CEO, John Stumpf.

Some of the world’s biggest oil producers have agreed on the need to cut production for the first time in eight years, sending crude prices higher by more than 5% at one stage, though they settled lower.