The ECB's long-term refinancing operation to shore up the books of various struggling banks has been declared a success in some quarters but there are other views that this injection of 530 billion euros ($A653.7 million) will sow the seeds for a later European debt crisis.
Copper and oil prices remain in high ground, seemingly providing little room for further growth.
London Metal Exchange cash copper closed at $US8625 a tonne overnight , up just 0.8% from last Friday.
By the same comparison, LME cash nickel was down 3% to $19,404/t last night.
Singapore Tapis crude has finally stopped climbing this week.
It was $133.28 a barrel overnight - down 0.6% from last Friday.
Spot gold is also losing some momentum.
It is trading around $1722.73 an ounce by in early afternoon trading (AEDT) - a fall of almost 3% from the end of last week.
Meanwhile, a standout performer of our recently updated watchlists was Bougainville Copper with a weekly gain of more than 20%.
There is increasing speculation over big announcements with regard to possibly reopening the Panguna copper-gold mine - but such a task is possibly one of the most challenging in Papua New Guinea.
