The auguries for the local market today look good – a solid bounce on Wall Street in the last hour of trading this morning, a solid gain here in futures trading and the dollar back over 78 US cents – and the Reserve Bank board meeting today which (in the market at least) is widely expected to see a cut in the cash rate to 2.25%.

There’s an old American stock market adage which says that the way Wall Street performs in January tells us how the rest of the year will go.

Nominally the very positive end to trading in commodities on Saturday morning, our time, with big rises for oil and gold, should have been good news generally for investors.

So will the Reserve Bank board cut the cash rate tomorrow – while more and more media commentators and others in business are saying ‘yes’, or ‘maybe’ or ’they have to cut’, quite a few business economists are still saying ’no’ this time around, but perhaps March or April.

Amid the flood of earnings results in the US, Asia and Europe and the UK last week, two stood out in the mind of the markets – tech giants Apple and Amazon.

Amid a welter of news, data, company reports and other events this week here and offshore, the Reserve Bank board meeting tomorrow and possible rate cut dominates for local investors and markets.

Some of the world’s major oil groups wielded the axe on spending and investment plans overnight with a vengeance, with more to come tonight and early next week. All up the cuts and losses in written down asset values topped the $25 billion mark, and that figure is open ended as the groups concerned promised more cuts if oil prices remain weak through the year.

No change at the Fed, or RBNZ, but watch Greece, it’s new government and some of its odd ideas are worrying markets.

Predictably, Australian inflation slowed sharply in the three months to December, thanks to falling oil and petrol prices, while underlying cost pressures (which the Reserve Bank looks at) remained solid, but well inside its 2% to 3% target range.

A miserable day yesterday for most commodity stocks, despite the rise in the wider market.

After the second worst day of trading this year when safe utility stocks proved to be the only area of interest for investors made nervous by the growing trend of weak earnings results in the US and offshore, Apple proved that it was still capable of surprising on the upside when it reported after hours that its December quarter earnings jumped 38% to a new high.

Once again the monthly survey of business conditions and confidence from the National Australia Bank has produced a mixed report – further emphasising that the surprise surge in the survey last October was a one off.

The Australian economic debate recommences this week after a few mild skirmishes over early January about the impact of lower oil and petrol prices.

Inflation in Australia, US 4th quarter and 2014 economic growth and the vital first meeting for 2015 of the US Federal Reserve will dominate markets here and offshore in this short week (for Australia).

Global markets survived the initial impact of the win in Sunday’s Greek election by the leftwing anti bailout Syriza party, and its alliance in government with its rightwing counterpart.

It’s the start of a full reporting week for oil companies large and small from the sharp fall in prices.

Shares rose and currencies wobbled as the European Central Bank followed the US Fed and the Bank of Japan in heading down the quantitative easing route.

There is a very real chance that China’s crude steel production – one of the vital indicators that Australian economists, governments and investors, not to mention iron ore producers need to watch closely – could stall and fall this year.

Hard on the heels of China reporting its weakest economic growth in 24 years, the International Monetary Fund has forecast a further slide in GDP this year and in 2016 for Australia’s biggest trading partner.