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Well, wonders never cease.

American shares also had a solid ending to a good week, despite the bad news from the November jobs report.

Employment data is supposed to be a lagging indicator, so given the spate of other solid data on the health of the US economy in the past month, November’s weak jobs report on Friday could be considered an aberration.

No interest rate increase is expected from tomorrow’s final board meeting of the Reserve Bank for 2010.

Gold above $US1, 400 an ounce, oil at a 25 month high and above $US89 as barrel and commodities generally at a 14 month high, risk was back on in a big way on Friday, despite some bad news from the American jobs market.

China is going to attempt the almost impossible in 2011; it’s going to tighten monetary policy, while attempting to keep the economy growth a sustainable pace.

The AMP’s chief economist, Dr Shane Oliver examines the outlook for Europe after this week’s Irish bailout.

While consumers were not consuming as much in October, the trade account held up very nicely, with another $2 billion-plus surplus recorded.

If Australian consumers are saving more, they are certainly spending less with retailers.

One of the mysteries of recent business activity, annual meetings and profit updates seems to have been solved by this week’s National Accounts for the September quarter.

Instead of the much-talked about mining and investment boom providing the impetus for the small positive growth in the quarter (and keeping intact our long almost unbroken chain of positive quarters) there was a very old-fashioned explanation (for Australia), the rebound in the bush with the return of good rains and growing conditions.

No sign of any sort of landing, soft or hard, in the Chinese economy, its more ‘full steam ahead’ after the latest surveys of the country’s huge manufacturing sector.

The December quarter has started the way the three months to September ended for the wider economy, showing early mixed signals about strength and direction.

There’s been another small but significant change in official government attitude to the current state of the Japanese economy.

The chances improved yesterday for modest positive growth in the September quarter national accounts, out later today.

Another 85 billion euros flung at a hole in a paste up job, or a meaningful start on something more permanent.

Negative growth for the September quarter has become more of a possibility after the release of surprisingly poor figures on business inventories and profits.

Australians, including the Federal Government, companies, all political parties, trade unions, professional groups and others in the community have been warned, the Reserve bank Governor wants to make sure we don’t fritter away the benefits of the second resources boom now dominating the economy.

Gold, oil, copper and a number of other commodities fell after the US dollar rose to a three month higher against the euro in holiday-affected trading Friday.

European Finance Ministers met in Brussels overnight Sunday and agreed to an 85 billion euro bailout of Ireland and its broken banks.

Rio Tinto holds its Australian investor day today and we’ll probably hear more of what the company said at the London briefing on Friday night, our time.

The third quarter growth figures for Australia dominate this week which will see a flood of data.

The AMP’s chief economist, Dr Shane Oliver says Australian housing is not in a bubble but it is very overvalued, and combined with high debt levels leaves Australian households vulnerable should anything significantly threaten house prices.

China’s official battle against rising asset prices, ‘hot money’ supply shortages and overall, consumer price inflation, continue to dominate the media and government pronouncements.

Japan’s export growth continues to slow and there are now fears that it could fall under the level of a year ago, adding to the pressure on the economy.

There was just a hint that our big investment boom might be cooling in the September quarter new and expected investment figures.