No real change in the jobs market in May with little sign the downturn in confidence among consumers after the federal budget has impacted jobs growth.

Wheat prices, already down sharply in 2014, are forecast to continue to fall over the rest of 2014, as rising global production offsets the early impact of drought in Australia and the US.

At last, some market volatility for all those moaning banks and brokers to trade off and make money.

New Zealand’s booming economy has forced the country’s central bank to lift its key interest rate for a third time this year.

Deflation might continue to stalk the Eurozone, but for China, May’s small rise in consumer prices means that for another month the weak economy isn’t in danger of dragging our biggest export market down the same path.

More evidence yesterday that the pace of activity in the economy is slowing after the strong March quarter.

After the holiday yesterday and the solid Chinese trade data, local markets this week will be focusing on the Australian jobs figures for May and a speech by Reserve Bank Governor Glenn Stevens in the US.

Chinese exports were solid in May, rising 7% from May 2013, but imports surprisingly dropped 1.6%, leading some analysts to suggest the economy was still weaker than thought.

What’s Rupert Murdoch and the family up to at 21st Century Fox? The company hasn’t bought back a share for a month – that’s the longest period in more than a year when the share buyback wasn’t conducted.

The Aussie dollar rose past 93 US cents overnight in the wake of the move by the European Central Bank to cut interest rates to record lows and introduce a new series of funding measures to try and kick start the eurozone economy and choke off the continuing slide in inflation.

The Reserve Bank has been warning that our stellar March quarter trade performance might not last – but did we really expect the trade boom to be over so soon in April?

Good news and for business, it’s the best time for two years, despite all the squeals about costs and nasty unions, reluctant consumers, the warm weather, the internet and whatever other reason they can advance to deny the current reality.

No movement in interest rates yesterday from the Reserve Bank, and there will be no change in this neutral policy stance for some time, even if today’s growth data shows a better than expected rise in March quarter GDP.

Don’t be surprised if the March quarter growth figures are a bit better than expected at the start of the week.

It looks almost certain that the European Central Bank will join the US Fed, Bank of England and the Bank of Japan in revealing some extraordinary policy changes to try and boost the weaker eurozone economy, after its meeting tomorrow night, our time.

Well, yesterday’s data drop has produced mixed views about the health of the economy.

It will be an enormous week for Australian economic data and by Friday we should have a clear idea of how the economy is placed.

The fall in global iron ore prices will rattle the local market today, but two bits of news from China (the major buyer of that iron ore) will go some way to easing those fears.

Well, ‘sell in May and go away’ would have been a far more profitable course of action for Australian investors (except for shareholders who stuck with the Commonwealth Bank) than most other markets – such as Wall Street, most Asian markets and their counterparts in Europe, which enjoyed a buoyant month.

Standby for more selling pressure in major miners on the ASX today after a 4% slide in the price of iron ore on Friday night.

Stronger than expected business investment figures for the 2014-15 financial year have confounded many forecasters who were looking for another doom and gloom set of numbers from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

New highs for Wall Street this morning, so it’s no wonder the MSCI World Index is also at new all time highs.