Iran has knocked on the head any attempt to freeze OPEC oil production at an unofficial meeting of the producer group in Algiers tonight, our time.

It was the turn of the optimists in the oil market to drive sentiment overnight, so crude prices rose by more than 3%, recouping most of the losses sustained on Friday, when hopes for an output deal in Algeria this week faded.

Look for local bank shares to take the brunt of any selling today after a bad session on global markets triggered by more speculation about the future of Deutsche Bank.

Watch Twitter shares which climbed more than 21% on Friday after it was confirmed that Google and Salesforce.com had been sniffing round the underperforming social media platform owner.

The much ballyhooed unofficial OPEC meeting will be held this week and the markets are betting on nothing much happening – for the second time this year.

Oil, or rather an unofficial OPEC meeting in Algiers this week will dominate markets, but nothing significant is expected judging by the big slide in global oil prices on Friday night.

Unlike oil and thanks to the Fed and the Bank of Japan, gold woke up last week for its best week long session in two months.

The normal slow end of the month this week that will firstly be dominated by the OPEC chat around an energy industry meeting in Algeria, and then the first US Presidential debate early tomorrow morning that could be watched by 100 million or more Americans.

The float is dead! Standby for a new round of moaning and groaning from analysts, big shareholders and other ‘friends’ of our big banks next year when they realise that the day of the multi-day settlement and clearance of transferred funds etc have ended.

The US Federal Reserve’s sugar bowl remains open for use, according to markets, judging by the solid gains yesterday and overnight in the wake of the central bank’s decision to put off a rate hike until perhaps December.

Stripped down to its core, the changes made yesterday by the Bank of Japan to its monetary policy stance are nothing more that an attempt to stop the carping and moaning from the country’s banks about the impact of the central bank’s negative interest rate policy (NIRP), and negative rates for Japanese government bonds.

As expected the Reserve Bank of NZ joined the Fed in sitting pat on interest rates this morning, but sent a signal that there will be a further cut or cuts to put more downward pressure on the value of the Kiwi dollar.

Barring a slide in the health of the American economy, US interest rates will rise in December after a divided Federal Reserve Open markets Committee left interest rates unchanged overnight.

Markets are on tenterhooks ahead of the Bank of Japan meeting and statement today and the US Federal Reserve post-meeting update early tomorrow.

More encouraging news from China with house prices rising more strongly in August than many analysts had forecast (or the Chinese government had believed).

The New Reserve Bank Governor, Dr Lowe and new deputy governor Guy Debelle will face their first appearance in their new roles at the House of Representatives Economics Committee on Thursday in Sydney.

The ASX 200 futures market traded overnight, apparently without concerns, after yesterday was lost due to major tech problems at the exchange.

Central banks will dominate the coming week with the US Fed, the Bank of Japan and the smaller RBNZ – all meeting to decide on interest rates.

So what was last week – specifically Monday and Tuesday afternoon all about?

Oil and gold lost ground, but copper and sugar enjoyed better weeks as the US dollar rose on Friday ahead of this week’s meeting of the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan.

Warren Buffett is facing continuing pressure over his company’s huge investment in struggling US banking giant, Wells Fargo. But Berkshire Hathaway’s stake in Apple is another story, currently in its strongest rally for more than two years.

Don’t look to yesterday’s August jobs figures as anything that will see the Reserve Bank cut interest rates again. Barring a slump globally (unlikely at the moment) rates will now remain on hold well into 2017. The current 1.50% level looks like being the all time low for the cash rate.