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A sharp jump in full time jobs underlines the case for ignoring the seasonally adjusted employment data and watching the trend series in the February report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics yesterday.

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 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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.