Building approvals fell again in February and retail sales recorded no growth whatsoever (on a seasonally adjusted basis) as consumer spending and housing demand softened at the start of 2016.

Investors wondering about the performance of the media sector in the next few months – specifically News Corp and Fairfax Media – have understand the importance to those two of the move by Genworth Mortgage Australia to make a capital return of up to $250 million to its shareholders.

A solid start to stockmarket trading today, according to the futures market, and if that happens it will be a gladly accepted relief after the nasty $20 billion plus sell-off on the ASX on Friday.

Central banks will dominate the news flow this week – again. Key policy meetings are due in Australia, Poland and India, while we will see the release of the minutes of the most recent meetings of the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank, both of which saw major market-influencing decisions released.

The rebound in commodity prices seen from mid-February is running out of steam, even though the weakening US dollar should be providing new fuel.

Commodity markets swooned, then ballooned, and then slowed in what was an excitable first three months of 2016 which saw solid rebound for oil and iron ore in particular.

Sharemarkets will start the June quarter and the month of April on tenterhooks today after a the rebound from the sell off in January and early February ran out of puff in the closing days of the first quarter.

Banking was the sector of global markets that whacked value in the March quarter – from Australia, to Italy, UK and the US, these core financial groups of the world and individual economies sank as investors queried their exposures to commodities such as oil, economies like Brazil and bond investors fretted about the safety of their positions.

The Yellen boost continued to drive markets overnight – except for gold which gave half some of Tuesday’s gains, and oil, which rose and then drifted back.

Now for a string of downgrades on global economic growth over the next month after the Asian Development Bank kicked them off yesterday with cuts to GDP forecasts for this year and 2017.

The Japanese economy has made a weak start to 2016 and to the final quarter of the Japanese financial year which ends today.

The big banks again rattled the ASX yesterday, crushing an early rally and eventually dragging the market down to within sight of a fall for the day after being up 1% in early trading.

If the futures market is of any guide, the ASX is facing a nice little rise this morning that might go someway to partially offsetting yesterday’s sell off, thanks to the slide in the big banks as investor fears about rising bad debts grabbed centre stage.

Another gloomy day for the big banks drove a $23 billion sell-off yesterday that pulled the Australian sharemarket to its lowest close in nearly four weeks.

Wall Street finished flat overnight, giving few leads for traders in Australia or Asia later today. Nothing significant will emerge after the Easter break as investors look for new leads from the US and Chinese economies later on Friday (See separate stories).

This Thursday marks the end of a very volatile three months – perhaps the most turbulent since the GFC. Some of the performance figures will be literally a tale of two halves – steep early losses and big rises in the past six weeks.

More evidence that the US economy is not the basket case we thought it was three months ago, raising the odds that the central bank will make its second rate rise in eight years sooner than the market expects.

There’s a quiet week ahead with all the interest concentrated on Friday and the release of the US jobs data for March and the first day of the month surveys across the globe of manufacturing (and some service sector) activity, with the two from China the ones to watch for.

There will be no respite for the embattled print media in Australia and around the world in the next three years, judging by a new forecast on ad spending.

More upbeat talk from Reserve Bank governor, Glenn Stevens about the health of the Australian economy, and the banking system.

Our market is heading for a hesitant start this morning after a mixed session on markets offshore overnight – although the Chinese market’s 2.1% gain yesterday stood out because improved price gains for housing.

Another positive start to a holiday-shortened week is ahead for sharemarkets.