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After rallying nearly $US100 in two months, gold gave up some of those  gains last week, taking many investors in the metal by surprise 

European and global markets ended around two-month highs Friday, but US shares struggled after the S&P 500 hit a 17-month closing high the day before.

The AMP’s chief economist, Dr Shane Oliver says there is a distinct cloud hanging over the return outlook for government bonds in many advanced countries, but not Australia.

We have been warned, the current housing boom risks a lot of tears and frustration if the Reserve Bank is forced to crunch it to save the rest of the economy from overheating.

Shock horror, China’s consumer inflation is now running at 2.7% and ‘house prices boom, bubble, boom and bust’ yell the western analysts.

This week we have seen the importance of confidence underlined as a very important (but hard to achieve) part of economic policy.

More figures on China’s economy out later today, but already the flow of early data suggests still strong growth.

The gulf between Australia and the US has again been underlined.

The Australian economy’s recovery is accelerating, as two surveys yesterday indicate.

Either the latest job ads survey from the ANZ Bank is a tip off that the labour market is tightening significantly, or it’s playing catch up to the real economy after showing a fall in ads in January.

Amid the hysteria in the energy sector caused by yesterday’s joint bid for Arrow Energy, smaller rival, Bow Energy was swept up in the surge in the wake of its release of upgraded resource figures.

Oil prices rose Friday to finish well above $US81 a barrel after the US jobs figures.

Just as Friday’s US jobs figures were important for US and other markets, our jobs data this week will be vital for ours.

US stocks jumped and the Nasdaq hit an 18-month on Friday night after the February jobs numbers turned out to be a bit better than forecast.

A week on from the release of the 2010-11 Indian budget, the country seems to have survived any test of confidence in the country’s prospects with the usual collection of bears, worriers, etc more focused on the tribulations of Greece than India.

A week ago we gave you the thinking of the World Gold Council on the outlook for gold in the coming year.

As risk worries have eased this week, the Australian dollar regained the 90 US cent mark, trading in a 2 cent range over the past few days.

2000 turned out to be quite a good year for Australia, much, much better than we all thought a year ago.

The AMP’s chief economist, Dr Shane Oliver, says that as we approach the one year anniversary of the bear market low in shares (Australian shares bottomed on March 6, 2009 and US shares bottomed on March 9) things are vastly different; the economy is much stronger than expected and corporate profits are recovering solidly.

Car sales in the US, Germany and Italy stalled last month, a situation that could put further pressure on embattled manufacturers if it continues, and on beleaguered economies as well.

It was a far more positive story in Australia where industry figures showed the number of cars shipped to dealers rose in both February 2009 and January of this year.

Macquarie Group is looking to float oil and gas services firm Miclyn Express Offshore in an initial public offering that could raise up to $365 million.