What you need2know:

• SPI futures up 68 pts at 5305

• AUD at 87.41 US cents

• On Wall St, S&P 500 +1.3%, Dow +1.6%, Nasdaq +1%

• In Europe, Euro Stoxx 50 +3%, FTSE +1.9%, CAC +2.9%, DAX +3.1%

• Spot gold down 49 US cents to $US1238.32 an ounce on Friday in New York

• Brent oil up 26 US cents to $US86.08 per barrel on Friday in New York

What’s on today

Monday: Australia Reserve Bank speech by Christopher Kent, assistant governor.

Stocks to watch

Commonwealth Bank kept an “underweight” recommendation on The Reject Shop, but dropped its price target to $6.90 a share from $7.60 after a trading update showed challenging conditions

Citi Research maintained a “buy” rating on Fortescue Metals Group, but lowered its target price to $4.50 from $4.70.

Morningstar raised Computershare to “accumulate” from “hold” with a “medium” fair value uncertainty, a “narrow” moat and a $13 a share fair value.

Currencies

Hedge funds and other large speculators raised their net bullish US dollar bets versus eight of its major peers to a record 331,464 contracts as of October 14, compared with 313,878 a week earlier, according to data from the Washington-based Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

In emerging markets, Indonesia’s rupiah appreciated 1.2 per cent to 12,108 per US dollar, leading gains today versus the greenback among 31 major currency pairs. The inauguration of the nation’s President-elect Joko Widodo is on October 20.

Moody’s Investors Service cut Russia’s sovereign debt rating to ‘Baa2’ from ‘Baa1’, becoming the second ratings agency to cut the country’s ratings this year, after S&P initiated a downgrade in April.

Commodities

Industrial metals rebounded on Friday, taking a pause after heavy losses, but the outlook remains clouded. “The demand environment doesn’t look good, and everyone knows in copper there’s a lot of mine supply coming,” said Colin Hamilton, head of commodities research at Macquarie in London.

BNP Paribas estimated that China’s net buildup of unreported copper stocks from 2009-2013 might have been greater than 1.5 million tonnes, much of which may be sitting outside bonded warehouses and strategic state reserves.

Oil prices rose slightly on Friday, bouncing from near four-year lows even while marking a fourth straight weekly loss. Oil has dropped over 25 per cent since June on strong supply, signs of weak demand growth and indications that key oil producers, particularly Saudi Arabia, have a limited appetite to cut output to bolster prices.

United States

US stocks extended their rebound from this month’s bruising selloff on Friday, giving the S&P 500 its best day in over a week, as worries about the US earnings outlook eased, but the S&P 500 still posted its fourth straight week of declines.

Housing shares were among the day’s best performers after a Wall Street Journal report said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are close to an agreement that could boost mortgage lending.

The world’s 400 wealthiest people dropped $US26.2 billion from their collective net worth last week as stocks slumped amid concern global growth is slowing. No one lost more than the Walton family. The heirs to Wal- Mart Stores founder Sam Walton shed $US6.9 billion from their combined holdings in the world’s biggest retailer after the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company cut its sales growth forecast and acknowledged the need to do a better job stocking shelves.

Europe

European stock markets surged on Friday as investors snapped up bargains, ending a roller-coaster week marked by alarm over fading global growth, a reemergence of eurozone tensions and the spreading Ebola virus.

"Valuations have improved after the sell-off," said Fadi Zaher, who helps to manage assets worth 7.5 billion euros at Kleinwort Benson. "However, on a relative basis, European equities are not attractive for the risk that they represent (and) have to underperform the US by 10 per cent to become attractive from current levels."

Euro zone banks gained 4.2 per cent, mirroring gains in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Greek bonds as traders speculated about more aggressive asset purchases from the European Central Bank.

Some of the biggest European corporations report earnings this week, among them software company SAP, Philips Electronics, BASF and car maker Daimler.

What happened on Friday

After a dramatic drop during Wednesday’s session, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 finished the week up 1.6 per cent, or 83.44 points, at 5271.7. The broader All Ordinaries lifted 1.4 per cent , or 74.4 points, to 5260.1. On Friday, the ASX 200 and All Ordinaries both gained 0.3 per cent.