Europe & UK

Beijing lowered its GDP growth target to 7.5% from the long held 8% last night prompting a bit of a scare on markets. Dow down 14. (Accessible only for subscribers before 10:15 AEDT)

Wrap of events affecting the market on Friday night and the weekend and a preview of the week ahead.

A brief look at important company events and economic data releases next week.

Apparently erroneous reports of a pipeline explosion in Saudi Arabia sent oil soaring, mostly killing off Wall Street’s latest attempt to rally. Dow up 23. (Accessible only for subscribers before 10:15 AEDT)

Bernanke’s scheduled testimony to Congress was relatively upbeat last night, and there was no mention of QE3. The Dow thus retreated 53 and gold plunged nearly US$100. (Accessible only for subscribers before 10:15 AEDT)

Forex.com analyst Chris Tedder explains the importance of the ECB’s LTRO tonight for the short term outlook of global risk assets.

A glance through the latest expert views and predictions about commodities with global and Chinese metal demand’s importance for prices, the earnings impact of a stronger AUD and NAB’s revised commodity expectations.

With Greece all but bailed, for the second time, economists have moved down the line to argue about whether we can shortly do it all again with Portugal.

Hardly convincing, but the cheer went up when the Dow managed to close at 13,005 on a 23 point gain. (Accessible only for subscribers before 10:15 AEDT)

Wall Street rebounded hard from a weak opening last night but the Dow yet again failed to hold above 13,000, finishing square at 12,981.(Accessible only for subscribers before 10:15 AEDT)