Another week where markets worried about events in Ukraine, Iraq and sliding economic growth in Europe and fell, but steadied and managed to end mostly higher in late trading in New York on Saturday morning, our time.

The coming week will be dominated here by the peak of the earnings season with the likes of BHP Billiton, Wesfarmers and major banks such as Westpac and the NAB due to reveal earnings or profit updates.

The coming week will be the busiest week of the Australian June full year and interim profit reporting season, with 90 major companies due to report.

For the second time in four months, big global investors have scaled back risk and taken on more cash – this time to two-year highs, on worries over geopolitical tensions and a growing belief that there’s a potential US interest rate hike ahead.

Sharks and clever investors continue to circle US media companies – including dying print groups. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has emerged with a stake in another company dominated by John Malone, the legendary US cable operator, and a well known raider, Carl Icahn has popped up as a surprise holder of shares in Gannett, America’s biggest newspaper company.

Oops, that wasn’t on the China economy script, or the one marked steel production (attention Australia).

The Murdoch clan has a new best friend in the voting shares in 21st Century Fox after San Francisco hedge fund and activist investor, ValueAct, picked up 30 million of the securities for around $US1 billion. That’s a stake of around 15%, making the fund the second largest holder of the voting shares in Fox.

The big rise in Chinese exports in July and the fall in imports grabbed the headlines, but for Australia the important data was the third highest level of iron ore imports on record – contrary to what the forecasts of falling sales and prices from the usual collection of worryworts and local ‘experts’ in recent months.