The Australian dollar lost more than one US cent this morning after the US Federal Reserve said it would maintain a commitment to keep interest rates near zero for a “considerable time” after finishing its easing program next month.

Rumours that the US Federal Reserve might not drop the phrase, ‘for a considerable time’ from its post meeting statement tomorrow morning, our time, saw the Aussie dollar rise to 91 cents, while Wall Street markets had a solid night.

The Reserve Bank has stepped up the level of its rhetoric on the housing boom – especially the high level of buying by investors – and the potential dangers to the Australian economy.

In a move that will be noticed the world over, especially among money managers, Calpers, America’s biggest public pension fund, has revealed plans to stop investing in hedge funds.

Sharemarket futures failed to react overnight Monday to a surge in the spot price of ion ore.

As expected the Aussie dollar fell yesterday, along with markets elsewhere. But the currency’s fall slowed overnight and the dollar was operating in a range between 90.20-30 this morning in early Asian trading.

Chinese factory output slowed to its weakest pace in nearly six years in August while property sales, retail sales and investment also cooled.

The Aussie dollar will come under more pressure today after losing three cents last week to touch six months lows, thanks to the weak production and investment data from China at the weekend, on top of the continuing strength of the US dollar ahead of the Federal Reserve meeting and the vote on Scottish independence.

The phrase ‘unchartered waters’ is often overused, especially when it comes to developments in financial markets, but this week sees two events which hold the threat of sending markets very much into the unknown.

The US Fed’s meeting and the Scottish independence vote will dominate the coming week here and around the world. Nothing much else will matter to investors as volatility returns to the forex and bond markets, while commodities drift lower and equities mark time.

Chinese consumer price inflation eased in August, well below the government’s target, to the slowest rate of growth in four months, a development not all that strange given the sharp recent fall in some commodity prices and in domestic food prices.

As was to be expected, the Aussie dollar’s fall was choked off yesterday by the very strong jobs report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics for August which once again has raised more questions than it has answers.

Now here’s the real story for commodity exporting countries such as Australia – it’s not just falling iron ore prices that threaten to wreak havoc on the trade accounts and export income, the prices of many other products, from wheat, to sugar, to milk, to copper and coal are at multi-year lows in many cases and threaten New Zealand, Canada and Brazil as well.

As expected the Reserve Bank of New Zealand has left official interest rates on hold at 3.5% as it assesses the impact of the four rate rises so far in 2014.

Like Tesco in the UK retailing, and Walmart, America’s retailing giant, McDonald’s, the burger behemoth has been hit by a sales slowdown which shows little sign of going away.

Global oil prices continue to fall, with the key US and European indicators hitting multi-month lows overnight, thanks to the rise in the value of the US dollar and an unexpected gloomy forecast from OPEC.

There are growing signs the value of the Aussie dollar is undergoing a major reassessment by big global investors. The currency has fallen more than 2 USc this week to around 91.60 this morning.

Business confidence and conditions might have come back a little in August, according to the latest national Australia Bank survey, but don’t tell property investors, they are still piling into housing, building up for what could be a nasty shake out down the track. 

Apple shares fell, rose, then fell again overnight and this morning as the company launched the new iPhones, the new iWatch and a mobile payments system which seems to have been the big attention grabber.

So did China export millions of new iPhone 6 models in August ahead of the launch tomorrow morning, our time, of the new Apple phone, and in doing so propel the country’s monthly trade surplus to more than $US49 billion?

Oops, now who wrote something negative about the Australian economy and jobs market in the past week or so (excluding the usual cast of gloomy analysts and dedicated bears)? 

Here’s a tale of two American jobs – on Friday night the August jobs report startled markets for a while by being inconclusive. Attention had been on Friday’s report all week and in the end it was a fizzer.

After a solid week last week for most markets, it will be a warier start today.

The Australian jobs report for August will be a dominating story for local markets this week, along with Chinese economic data for last month.

Conflicting moves in the price of iron ore and the value of the Aussie dollar on Friday night will send further ripples through the local market and the prices of iron ore miners when stockmarket trading resumes here later this morning.

Faced with the growing threat of deflation and slowing growth, the European Central Bank has thrown the dice and launched its last resort – cutting interest rates and starting a program of quantitative easing that could total more than $1 trillion.

Retailing had one of the best months of the year in July, led by solid sales for the still growing cafe and eateries sector, plus a solid rebound by department stores.

The slowdown in the economy has been expected for a while and the it’s something the Reserve Bank has been right on top of, as Governor Glenn Stevens said last month, “Data for the June quarter suggest a ‘payback’ of lower exports, and also a period of more subdued consumer demand. There are relatively few readings for the September quarter as yet, though at least some suggest that there may have been a reasonable start to the quarter."