No change in interest rates yesterday, but an increase is looming, perhaps next month or in July after the RBA Governor Glenn Stevens made a significant change to the statement issued after yesterday’s rate setting meeting of the bank’s board.

More faint signs of a slowdown in Chinese manufacturing, but they are nothing to get excited about, despite the attempt to do so by some analysts. 

A weekend after gold and especially silver closed at new highs, they got belted in very thin trading electronic yesterday, especially silver.

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Australian home prices are falling, where they will end up no one knows, but they could have a way to go given that lending finance figures for March from the Reserve Bank were weak.

Three of Australia’s top banks are set to report record profits this week, but did Macquarie tip their hand on Friday with a surprise lift in dividend?

The Reserve Bank board meets tomorrow and is not expected to lift rates.

Gold up, silver up, oil a bit firmer, Wall Street up, April was a month on the up and up for many markets and investment classes.

It’s easy to see why Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is looking at two large acquisitions on the scale of its $US9 billion cash purchase of chemical company Lubrizol Corp.

A very big week ahead for the economy in Australia, the US, Europe and the UK, not to mention China and other economies in Asia.

According to the federal government, there’s a new deal for investors from the long awaited reforms released yesterday.

The first rounded glimpse of the damage done to the economy of Australia’s second biggest trading partner reveals damage much larger than expected, but confidence in the recovery undiminished.

As expected, New Zealand’s Reserve Bank has kept interest rates unchanged after its meeting yesterday and that situation will continue for some time to come because of the impact of the February 22 second Christchurch quake which will help keep core inflation under control.

Higher oil and food prices, a falling dollar, weakening government spending and now US economic growth has come in on the downside of comfortable.

Headline inflation was a bit stronger than expected in the March quarter, but that won’t force the Reserve Bank’s hand at its May meeting next Tuesday.

Strangely, Standard & Poor’s yesterday put Japan on a creditwatch negative because of uncertainty about the amount of spending and borrowing for the reconstruction of the damage caused by the March 11 quake and tsunami and the impact of the Fukushima nuclear crisis.

Australia’s third most important export market, South Korea, continues to grow strongly, as does the chances of another rate rise.

As expected there was no change from the US Federal Reserve after its two day meeting which ended early Thursday morning, Sydney time.

A big week for the US, with the Federal Reserve expected to keep interest rates and its quantitative easing program on hold, and the first estimate of March quarter economic growth expected to show a sharp slowing.

In assessing the likely impact of the March quarter consumer price data later today, here’s a reminder from the minutes of the April 5 meeting of the Reserve Bank board which left rates unchanged.

Later today and tomorrow we will get a very good idea of the damage done to the Japanese economy by the March 11 quake and tsunami and then the Fukushima nuclear crisis which remains unresolved.

It’s a three-day week in Australia this week, with a fair bit packed into that time.

Japan is facing several months of falling exports after reporting a 2% fall in shipments in March yesterday.

The AMP’s chief strategist, Dr Shane Oliver looks at the role played by investor psychology in investment markets and what it means for investors.

Japan’s Fukushima crisis continues to impact the nuclear power industry around the world.