08:55am  ~  I was not around at all yesterday as there was a family emergency, but back to normal today hopefully – although as it’s the first Friday of the month it means it’s also Non Farm Payrolls day so I shall not be trading. As I’ve mentioned before, the markets I generally trade will be stuck in a small trading range this morning and then all will go crazy at lunchtime when the U.S. employment numbers are released.  Instead I shall be out cycling followed by a tennis match this afternoon.

The May Day holiday in the EU yesterday plus today’s aforementioned Non Farm Payrolls has put a dampener on trading at the moment but overall there seems to be much trader optimism around – the Dow Jones 30 and S&P500 indices are up around record highs again with no apparent bad news to diminish investors bullishness.  Once the S&P500 goes through the 1890 resistance level there is a lot of clear sky for traders to go for. The WTI crude prices continued to head south yesterday, losing 51 cents to end the session at $99.22 a barrel contrary the increasing political tensions in Eastern Europe. Along with the reported record US oil supply, recent Chinese manufacturing figures indicated a slower than expected growth which puts further downside pressure on the price.

Gold prices dropped again yesterday, losing close to $7 to $1284.8 as the Fed continued trimming the pace of bond buying, a $10 billion cut to $45 billion.  This and a continuing optimistic economic outlook should keep pressure on any upward movement although there does now seem to be support at $1275.