Markets around the world fell sharply overnight after another bout of weak economic news from China, which have again hinted that the economy could be slowing more sharply than it seems.

Meanwhile Wall Street closed this morning all but steady after those big losses in European and Asian markets yesterday and overnight.

The warming up of the US stockmarket for a big downturn in bank profits for the three months to March 31 continues.

The strong New Zealand economy has seen the country’s central bank lift interest rates this morning by a quarter of a per cent to 2.75%, the first movement in rates for three years. And the bank left markets in no doubt that more rate rises are in the offing.

Weak consumer confidence for March and a solid report on home lending for January cancelled each other out yesterday – now it’s the February jobs report later this morning for investors to contend with, while across the Tasman Kiwis are coming to terms with their first interest rate rise for three years.

The surprise two month improvement in business conditions found by the National Australia Bank in its monthly surveys, seems to have petered out, according to the latest survey from the bank.

If the current Federal Government changes the media laws to allow for a new round of deals – such as mergers/takeovers – there’s only one bit of advice to follow – consider the past, rotten record of media takeovers, take the money and invest it in a company that will earning profits and pay dividends for a while to come – such as a bank.

After last week, a bit of a breather for markets, investors and others with the flow of news and data more patchy and less important.

Apparently weak February trade data for China will get the gloomsters and bears licking their lips today, but they should hang on for a month or two to see if February’s big fall in exports is repeated in March and April.

Believe it or not, the Australian market had another week of relative outperformance last week.

Comex gold futures in New York closed 1% lower on Friday night, our time, after suffering their biggest one-day loss in more than a week.

Standby for some terrible March quarter results from some of the world’s major banks – results which will underline just how well run Australia’s banks are, and how well the local economy is going, led by our surging property and housing markets.

The early 2014 data suggests that the Australian economy seems to have stepped a pace from the surprisingly strong level of growth seen at the end of 2013.

And a big tick to the Reserve Bank for getting economy right, judging by the 4th quarter growth figures yesterday. Remember the RBA changed its monetary policy stance at the February meeting and maintained it this week.

In what’s good news for Australia and other major commodity producers, China retained its 7.5% GDP target for this year, according to a speech to the country’s rubberstamp national parliament yesterday by Premier Li Keqiang. It is in fact the third successive year where the GDP target has been 7.5%.

As expected, the Reserve Bank left interest rates on hold with the cash rate steady on 2.5% – and no sign of any change in the foreseeable future.

Gold surged 2% to a four-month high overnight thanks to the escalating tensions between Ukraine and Russia and the other major powers.

The growing unease over Russia’s adventures in and around the Ukraine will be enough to get the Reserve Bank sitting on its hands at the March board meeting today.

Now for one of the biggest weeks of economic data this year (it will be repeated three more times in 2014), with central banks meeting to consider monetary policy decisions (including the Reserve Bank), jobs reports in the US and Canada, economic growth data in Australia, and the tail end of profit reporting seasons in several markets.

The December half year and full year Australian corporate earnings season has ended and it’s been better than expected.

February may have ended with a bit of a fade on Friday as major markets closed the month on a weak to mixed note, but that didn’t detract from what was a very strong month, more than offsetting January’s slide.

If only all investors had the problems of Warren Buffett – 2013 was another year of "underperformance" compared with the 30% jump in the US market.

UK commercial TV operator, ITV, has once again proved that the free to air TV model isn’t dead, dying or about to depart this mortal life.