A busy week here and offshore for economic data, while it will also see what has been a mixed first quarter end on Thursday (and the March half year for a number of local companies).

American unemployment, Australian building approvals and retail sales for February and the balance date for three of our big four banks on March 31, will dominate the week.

As well the markets look like continuing to ignore the flow of bad news from Japan, Europe and the Middle East and North Africa.

For how long remains a good question and probably the most important one around at the moment.

Better than forecast growth figures in the third estimate for America's 4th quarter have raised hopes that the jobs figures for March, to be released on Friday, will be better than expected.

Gross domestic product rose at an annual rate of 3.1%, the US Commerce Department said in its third and final estimate, revised up from 2.8%. That's around 0.75% quarter on quarter growth.

Now, some US economists reckon the