Yes, the Reserve Bank scolded banks and other home lenders about a drift in lending practices – but on the whole, the sector remains conservative and well placed financially, as tipped in yesterday’s email.

The health of Australia’s financial system will get a big tick this week in the Reserve Bank’s first report on financial stability for 2014, to be released later today.

So much for the impact of the weak Chinese manufacturing survey yesterday – it rattled local markets briefly but the Aussie market was higher by the end of the day after starting out lower. The Aussie dollar fell around a third of a cent on the news of the slower than expected data, but then bounced sharply overnight in offshore trading to hit new 2014 highs in the US.

The Aussie dollar ended the week on a solid note and is again within sight of the 91 USc mark and looking to remain around that level.

It’s the Reserve Bank’s week in Australia this week, with four speeches and public appearances from the governor Glenn Stevens and his deputy Phil Lowe, plus the release of one of the bank’s major reports on the Australian economy – its first financial stability assessment for 2014.

Gold futures finished higher on Friday night, our time, recovering some of the losses from a four-session losing streak.

Big global investors have become more cautious because of the tensions in Ukraine crisis and the slowing Chinese economy and spate of company collapses.

The US Federal Reserve has signalled that interest rates could start rising earlier than previously expected after its March meeting ended earlier this morning with the central bank altering its forecasts for the economy over the next year and changing the criteria for returning rates to more normal levels.

Well, for a central bank that spent the last three months of 2013 moaning and groaning about the high value of the Australian dollar – and even warning of possible intervention, yesterday’s minutes from the Reserve Bank’s March board meeting were remarkably devoid of any serious mention of the currency and its value – which remains above 91 USc this morning.

Here’s China’s next stimulus plan for the economy – it’s embedded in the Chinese government’s “National New-type Urbanisation Plan", which was released on Sunday, which calls for a massive build-out of transport networks, urban infrastructure and residential real estate from now until 2020.

The Australian dollar’s recent strength continued yesterday, helped by an about turn on local interest rates by one of the big bears of the markets, Westpac’s chief economist, Bill Evans.

All eyes will be on Russia this morning for reaction to yesterday’s ‘yes’ vote in Crimea on succession from Ukraine.

Oil and gold will lead the reaction to events in Ukraine today in commodity markets.

If you had to pick the oddest event in the markets last week, so far as Australia is concerned, it was the continuing strength of the dollar.

Ukraine will dominate markets and the week from today, overshadowing a solid week of major figures in some economies.

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

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.

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.