Don’t be surprised if the US Federal Reserve stops cutting interest rates and joins our Reserve Bank in sitting on its hands for a while for similar reasons.

Business this week will be dominated by the March quarter’s Consumer Price Inflation figures on Wednesday, the ANZ’s 2008 interim profit the same day, and of course, the contentious West Australian Newspapers shareholder meeting in Perth, also on the same day.

After Wall Street’s strong Friday and week, everyone’s attention is now on whether the US markets can make it back into the black for the first time this year.

The big rumour on the market at the moment is of a possible deal between the acquisitive Stockland and GPT, once the latter frees itself from the clutches of the strained investment bank, Babcock and Brown.

Sometimes Wall Street resembles the Titanic, before it met an iceberg that didn’t like it.

Well, we now know that China’s economy has survived the worst winter weather in 50 years, a surge in inflation and the Tibet problems.

The Australian share market finished the day up nearly 1%, as strong gains on Wall St whetted investor appetite for local stocks.

Barring horrible inflation figures next week and in late July, the next move in interest rates will be down as the economy continues to slow faster than the Reserve Bank thought it would.

New Zealand, like Australia, Britain, India, China, Japan and the US continues to face increasing pressures from rising inflation: be it wholesale or retail.

The market finished in the positive again today, following a strong rebound in banks and resources, led by the strong Wall St performance overnight.

A medium-sized US homewares retailer could embarrass some of the bigger names in US finance, especially the private equity business, by going bust this week.

US shares ended on a moody note as worries about Wachovia’s earnings and the outlook for corporate profits overshadowed the March retail sales report.

Well, where’s there to go when the stocks you thought were safe havens, turn out to be infected with the virus of recession and contracting margins?

A grim warning from the International Monetary Fund about the dangers of food price inflation has been amplified by figures showing two of the major economies in Asia, Japan and India, are battling the highest cost pressures for a decade or more.

After Friday’s timely reminder to investors that the poor profit and poor outlook from the mighty General Electric means there’s a lot of bad things to still be endured in the current market uncertainty, it will be a gun-shy mob that looks ahead this week to the first quarter reporting season and some important stats.