The outer limits? The fate of the multi-billion dollar bids for AXA Asia Pacific Holdings from the AMP and the National Australia Bank will be known this week when the competition regulator, the ACCC, is expected to rule on each of the offers. These will be the latest decisions from the Commission which has been taking an increasingly hard line against big deals. It has rejected the Cargill acquisition of Goodman Field’s oils business, a major rationalisation in share registers and said no to Caltex’s attempt to buy Mobil’s Australians service stations. The AXA rulings are expected by Thursday, according to a Commission statement in late March.

Volcano delays key Greece meeting. The meeting tonight in Athens between the IMF, the European Commission and the European central bank and the Greek Government regarding the country accessing the 30 billion euro financial backstop has been postponed to Wednesday, if Europe’s volcano ash airline crisis is over by then. Obviously Athens was a bus trip too far for all the high flying bureaucrats. And then there’s the IMF, World Bank and Group of 20 finance ministers meetings in Washington starting on Thursday.

US housing foreclosures roll on. New home starts were up in March and this week we will find there’s been a rise in new home sales. But the reality is that March also saw another record, an unwanted one this time for the US — home foreclosure filings in American courts hit a new high last month with 367,000 properties involved. According to data firm RealtyTrac, that’s the biggest number of default notices, seizures and foreclosure auctions since it started issuing monthly reports back in January 2005. The rise is despite more people receiving some help from various government plans to delay, slow or renegotiate their home loans completely and avoid foreclosure. There are around 6 million US homeowners who are now more than 60 days late in their mortgage payments.

The jobless recovery goes on. Despite the rise in US jobs of 162,000 in March, figures out Friday again underline the fickleness of this US recovery and labour market. Nearly half of all America’s 50 reported rising unemployment rates in March, with rates above the national average of 9.7% in 11 states. A total of 24 states saw jobless rates rise last month, but they also fell in 17 states including the District of Columbia. It was partly the census factor in some areas. On an annual basis, jobless rates increased in 44 states and DC in March. That’s down from a total of 46 states in February. Michigan’s again had the highest, 14.1% with Nevada second with 13.4%. Rhode Island and Florida also had rates above 12%. North Dakota continued to have the lowest jobless rate in March. The 4% rate was followed by South Dakota’s 4.8% and Nebraska’s 5% unemployment rates. Australia’s national rate is 5.3%, Europe’s is 10% and Japan’s 4.9% by way of comparison.

China tightens the screws on property. China has turned the screws again on the property sector. After lifting deposits on second and third homes, the country’s State Council has said banks can refuse to lend to people buying third homes, and can refuse to lend to people who can’t prove they have lived in a certain area for at least a year. That was after down payments for second homes were lifted to at least 50%, from 40%, and mortgage rates for second homes were set at a minimum of 110% of benchmark rates. Banks should also raise down payment ratios and rates for third homes “by a broad margin.” The Council said in the statement on Saturday (the second in two days) that local governments should take any necessary measures to restrict the number of homes to be bought in a certain period of time and taxes should be employed to adjust consumption for housing and earnings on property development. Property prices in 70 major cities rose by a record 11.7% in the year to March, up from 10.7% in the 12 months to February.

Back from the dead. Gannett Co, America’s biggest newspaper chain, surprised with a 51% rise in first quarter profits, thanks mostly to cost cuts and a slower fall in the rate of decline in advertising in its various outlets. The group said its first quarter profit jumped 51% to $US117.2 million (or $A125 million), compared with $US77.4 million ($A83 million) in the same quarter of 2009. Gannett’s main title is national daily USA Today. The company was the first major US publisher to report first quarter results. Rivals McClatchy, Lee Enterprises and the New York Times Co report this week. Gannett’s overall revenue fell 4% in the quarter from the March quarter of 2009, with ad revenues down 8% against 18% a year earlier. TV revenues were up 15% with the Winter Olympics the major factor.