A weak September jobs report finally struggled into the markets overnight and the 148,000 new jobs created failed to convince anyone, so up went markets, with Wall Street up more than half a per cent at the close.

The recent spate of positive economic news from China (which is good news for Australia) has drawn attention from Japan’s attempts to reflate itself out of a deflationary rut, and the impact on Australia.

The Australian stockmarket was an unusual beacon of bullishness yesterday, judging by the way other markets went.

Washington has cooled, but there are still a number of issues/situations/factors to be aware of as the markets continue on their current bullish trajectories.

We saw records, new multi-year highs and solid gains all round in many equity markets last week as the US debt and budget crisis passed. China produced solid third quarter growth data and the chances of the US Federal Reserve starting to cut its huge spending program receded a bit further into 2014.

The week ahead: Aussie inflation, US jobs and profits, European production, Japanese exports

If the Washington deal in the US Senate to end the budget and debt ceiling impasse is passed by the Republican-dominated House of Representatives in the next 24 hours, then the crisis will be over until early 2014.

Be wary of the coming deal on US budget, debt impasse – it will mislead

The US debt and budget impasse remains just as confused this morning, as it was a week ago and those signs late in the week of progress in resolving them seem to have gone for the moment.

The real story from the September trade data from China has been the strength of imports – especially iron ore, oil and copper – which all rose sharply in the month as the economy recovered.

This week: US debt ceiling, RBA minutes, US earnings, Chinese data to dominate

Standby for a big day on the Australian stockmarket and markets through Asia after a relief rally swept Wall Street overnight.

Take the September jobs report and many of the reactions to it with a great big grain of salt or, better still, take a cold shower if you think it’s good news.

Investors in local print media companies such as Fairfax Media, News Corporation, Seven West Media and APN News and Media should take note of what’s a dramatic move from major global paper, The Financial Times as it tries to build on its already highly successful foray into the online world.

Are there signs of a solution to the US budget and debt ceiling impasse that is starting to worry markets around the globe?

The US budget and debt ceiling stalemates are slowly impacting markets around the world, with Wall Street suffering another day of nerves which saw a second successive sell off.

As was expected, business confidence jumped sharply in the wake of the September 7 election result, but that has had little impact on the still sluggish conditions locally for companies.

Mixed news for Australia and Australian exporters, such as miners, from the World Bank’s latest survey of the East Asian region, which contains some of our major export markets, led by China.

A truncated week for most of Australia won’t detract from impact of the most important domestic bit of news – the September employment report on Thursday.

The US Budget shutdown is fast becoming a debt ceiling brawl and US default fears are on the rise.

Day three of the US shutdown and slowly but surely the markets are starting to quiver as the debt ceiling deadline comes into focus.