The three Commonwealth commodity dollars led the field, striding ahead during the first four days of the week before handing back some of their gains on Friday. There was nothing particularly distinctive about any of the trio: it was just that investors were stampeding towards the currencies and other investments that would, in their opinion, benefit most from a solution to the Euroland sovereign debt crisis.

Statistics from the Australian economy were few and didn’t bring much to the party. November's new home sales figure was the only obviously positive number, rising by 6.8% in November. The number of building permits issued during that same month was either good, if you looked at the 8.4% monthly increase, or bad if instead you concentrated on the -18.9% annual decrease.

Retail sales were unchanged on the month; a bad signal to those who had expected growth, but a relief to investors who had feared a decline.