The growing acceptance of China in international capital markets faces a watershed moment this week with a decision on whether a group of stocks listed on its $7 trillion domestic equity market will be included in the world's dominant emerging markets stock index – MSCI.
 
Inclusion in the index would confer recognition of China's domestic markets and oblige funds from all over the world to pour billions of dollars into the country's stocks.
 
Opinion is divided on whether MSCI will grant inclusion. In each of the past three years, the company has debated inclusion with index users only to reject it citing market access obstacles and governance issues.
 
The four factors supporting the current equity market rally – low interest rates, global growth, good earnings and a glass half-empty view towards equities – continued for the past fortnight.
 
However ongoing growth may be under threat from poor US consumer sentiment on the back of the enquiry into Trump's possible links to Russia during the election campaign. Consumer sentiment has fallen sharply after the recent testimonies before congress and retails sales are no longer as strong as they could be.
 
Elsewhere, the global growth story continues. In Japan, exports experienced their strongest growth since 2010. Also, the Bank of Japan delivered a more upbeat assessment of the country’s economic conditions even though it is unlikely to meet its inflation target.
 
Data out of China painted a steady picture – not one of slowing growth. Industrial production growth stayed constant for May, whilst fixed investment continued to expand. Retail sales growth was unchanged as well.
 
Meanwhile in Australia, last week’s data showed a large jump in employment for the third month in a row, prompting the unemployment rate to fall to a four-year low.
 
With the Australian economy is continuing to surprise on the upside, it’s now seems unlikely that the RBA will cut rates again later this year.
 
Finally, during the past three weeks, the price of Brent crude oil has fallen to its lowest level this year.  Even though the decision by Opec, Russia and other producers to extend oil supply cuts for another nine months should support the market.
 
There is no fundamental justification for the price drop, which is more likely being driven by speculators and funds shifting out of oil and commodities in general in favour of other trades and asset classes.