Friday it was inflation hitting a high of 1.9%; last Wednesday it was June exports falling 1.7%, the first such decline for five years; yesterday it was news that Japan’s unemployment rate had hit a two year high.

There is a silver lining from the terrible conditions we seem to be seeing in the financial markets and in the economy: there’s a forecast the Reserve Bank will probably cut interest rates next year by more than we expect.

US June quarter GDP and July employment will be released in the week ahead and both are likely to tell different stories about where the American economy is right now.

Wall Street finished the week cautious and wondering where to go to next.

Nickel had its biggest weekly decline in London in four months as stainless-steel mills, the biggest users of the metal, said demand is weakening.

So what drove inflation higher?

Every month Merrill Lynch polls big investors around the world to see what they were thinking and posts the results on its US website.

The big question this week is whether oil continues to ease as it did for most of the past week.