07:40am  ~  An early start for me this morning as I am off up the road for a clay pigeon shoot at 8am but should be back before lunch when I’ll do some chart watching and emails here in the study.

US markets finished slightly lower yesterday as the latest FOMC minutes last night confirmed the view that the recent decision to taper their money-printing exercise was very much a majority view, a view that has subsequently been endorsed, earlier this week, by the lone dissenter at the time, Boston Fed chief Rosengren.

These minutes also showed optimism that the current improvement in the labour market looked set to continue as the economy improved, but this was tempered with some caution about the weak inflation outlook, which could well influence future decisions about tapering too quickly, in the coming months. All will be revealed on Friday when we have December’s employment numbers announced in the Non Farm Payroll figures.  Here in Europe we have rate decisions for the ECB and Bank Of England plus a speech later on in the day by ECB President Mario Draghi.

As expected, Gold was under pressure from the resistance level at $1250 and ended slightly down although the direction of equities today will most probably dictate its direction for the rest of the week.

16:15pm  ~  In the end we stayed up at the farm all day so I have only just got back home. I am going to switch on my charts shortly and see what opportunities present themselves – I will report back later.

17:25pm  ~  I’ve found a ‘short’ opportunity on my Brent Oil chart using strategy 3 from the trendFX system and I got into the trade a few minutes ago.  Nothing has come up with my Trade With A Day Job strategy yet.

19:45pm  ~  The price of Brent Oil has had a break in its downward momentum so I’ve come out of my position with a profit of +52 pips. We are off out with friends to the Bell at Walberswick for supper at 8 o’clock so my charts are being switched off now.

Daily Target Reached ?  YES  (+52 pips)