Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has announced a crackdown on short selling and stock lending in an attempt at making domestic financial markets more transparent.

Last week was probably the best trading we’ve seen this year on stockmarkets.

So how did the markets finish the week?

The International Monetary Fund will confirm this week that the US economic slowdown is dragging on world economic growth.

Jobs, earnings and interest rates this week, but in no particular order.

Markets ended flat today amidst a flurry of activity both on the international and local markets scene.

Back to back interest rate rises have affected yet another industry – construction.

Starting today and continuing for the next month we are going to get another round of jottings and forecasts from economists, commentators and others on the likelihood of interest rates rising at the May meeting of the Reserve Bank board.

The MSCI Asia-Pacific Index gained 1.23, adding to Wednesday’s 3.2%.

The AMP is a big player in the sale of superannuation products, but it does know what happens in up and down years.

Across the developing and emerging economies of the world, and in some developed economies for that matter, governments are opting to shoulder some of the burden of higher food prices or control their direction.

The Australian stock market finished slightly up today, with the benchmark S&P/ASX200 Index 10 points higher at 5619.60, while the broader All Ordinaries gained 17.9 points to 5663.7.

Both the World and Asian Development Banks have forecast a cooling in the rapid pace of economic growth in East Asia; forecasts which should be of considerable interest to Australia.

Sharemarkets finished the second day of the second quarter generally upbeat, although Wall Street was a touch easier as investors couldn’t make up their minds about the outlook for the economy.

The punters and ‘gold as an inflation hedge’ believers might not like it, but the precious metal is a volatile investment to ride at the moment.

The Australian share market continued to climb today, gaining as much as 2%.

New Zealand packaging services company Freightways (FRE:NZX) said today it is to buy the business and assets of National Records Managers (NRM) and Fine Paper Suppliers (FPS) for A$5.9 million.

Yet another property group appears to be in trouble.

The chances of the European Central Bank cutting interest rates later this month have all but disappeared after Eurozone inflation soared to the highest level for almost 16 years.

According to some analysts, the Japanese economy could be headed for a mild recession this year, following the release of a survey showing sentiment among big Japanese manufacturers has sunk to a four-year low.

As expected Australian shares had their worst performance in 20 years in the March quarter

There’s been a marked change in tone from the hard line of the February statement, the rise of 0.25%, the subsequent minutes which showed the bank flirted with a 0.50% rise to the small softening in March and now the much milder tone of the commentary in yesterday’s statement.

The Reserve Bank left rates on hold yesterday at 7.25% for its cash rate, so now we face a month of the usual breathless will they won’t they move them in May after the March quarter Consumer Price Index is released on April 23.

The market bounced nicely today following a positive lead from Wall Street overnight.

Despite the TD Securities/Melbourne Institute Inflation gauge showing another month of 4% inflation in March, the more interesting figures were the end of month credit numbers for February from the Reserve Bank.

Food price inflation shows no sign of easing with the world’s most important staple, rice, swept up into the maw of falling stocks, rising demand and soaring prices.