Here's my summary of the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9 am, including news of more problems of rising yields.
In the US, operating profits of major banks Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase came in above market expectations.
However, both banks saw their capital base shrink by a combined US$6.5 billion as higher bond yields hit their house bond holdings.
This issue is important these days as regulators target bank capital and their leverage levels.
Australia has announced it is scrapping its problematic carbon tax and replacing it with an emissions trading scheme (ETS), bringing it into line with the New Zealand arrangements. But the Aussie Greens look like they will block the move.
Rio Tinto has made progress in quitting more of its aluminium business, having sold two unprofitable facilities in France in a deal 'brokered' by the French Government.
In China, there has been a flurry of backtracking resulting from Premier Li's acknowledgement of only 7% growth this year as opposed to the official 7.5% level.
The official media there have been dancing around this difficult issue as exports and growth slows.
Gold starts the week at US$1,285, a rise of 7% in 7 days. And the Dow is touching its all-time high at 15,430.
The Aussie dollar briefly dropped below US0.90 on Saturday, its lowest since August 2010. (Back then, the Kiwi dollar was below US$0.70.)
However, the NZ dollar starts this week at 77.7 USc, 86.0 AUc, and the TWI is at 74.0.
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