For Australia it’s a big, big week with the timing of the next interest rate move, the next Federal election and the future direction of the economy to be decided tomorrow while the health of the stockmarket, especially the important banking sector, will be tested from today on with some key profit reports.

The continuing slide in the US coal and oil industries has had a direct impact on the earnings of the mighty empire of Warren Buffett. Speaking at his company, Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting in Omaha at the weekend, Buffett said the company’s preliminary first-quarter profit fell about 12%, hurt by weaker performance in its huge railroad and insurance operations.

The yen surged more than 3% and the Tokyo stockmarket sold off heavily yesterday after the Bank of Japan left monetary policy unchanged, denying hopes for a significant easing from the market on a day data emerged showing the country had fallen back into deflation for the first time since 2013.

Wall Street rose, oil and gold rose, US bond yields rose after the US Federal Reserve left its key interest rate unchanged and gave us no clue as to what it might do in June.

Things are getting frenetic in and around China’s commodity exchanges as speculators continue to drive prices higher and regulators fight back to dampen the overheating.

Business economists and other ‘experts’ were left with egg on their faces yesterday after they completely missed the surprise dip in inflation in the March quarter.

The Chinese government is continuing its hardline policy against coal, revealing that it will ban construction of new coal-fired power plants in areas with surplus power supply.

It was big morning for US tech stocks with results from Apple, Twitter, eBay and AT&T hitting Wall Street with varying impact in late trading or after hours. And the reaction, especially to Apple’s report, won’t bolster investor confidence in the sector or in the wider economy.

The March quarter earnings season has moved into top gear with 186 S&P 500 companies scheduled to report results this week, including last night. Of that 186, more than 800 companies will release results this week in one of the busiest periods of the reporting season. Watch especially for Apple, Facebook and Amazon quarterly reports to drive investor sentiment.

Moves in China to cool activity in steel, iron ore and other commodity markets late last week saw prices fall sharply as exchanges took action to try and limit the impact of speculators.

Central banks again dominate the rest of this week, led by the US Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan, the Banco de Brazil, the Bank of Russia and Reserve Bank of New Zealand.

Amid weakening markets overnight, iron ore stood out with yet another surge to around powered $US70 a tonne as Chinese steelmakers reportedly ramped up production to take advantage of bigger profit margins that have boosted demand.

Japan’s trade account continues to suffer from the same malaise as those for China, Taiwan and South Korea – weak export performance as world trade stagnates, and plunging exports, brought about by weak demand and the slide in commodity prices, especially the cost of energy such as coal, oil and gas.

The Aussie dollar rose to a new 10 month high of 77.85 US cents yesterday as the minutes of the April meeting of the Reserve Bank of Australia confirmed the central bank’s concerns about the impact of the higher currency on the wider economy.

Interest rates are low, growth is low, inflation remains low (for that the plunge in oil and other commodity prices are partly to blame) and the outlook is for more of the same, at best.

The Reserve Bank has delivered a tough warning to the big banks not to go looking for risky ways to boost earnings and returns at a time when building capital buffers is paramount.

Our market is looking for a 1% jump this morning after global markets shook off the failure of the Doha oil meeting and ended higher.