11:25am  ~  Today’s update is a bit later than usual as I was up very early this morning (6am) to go Clay-Pigeon shooting and I have only just returned home.

European markets had a generally bearish day yesterday – weighed down by troubles in Ukraine and even better than expected U.S. GDP growth did not help as traders interpret optimism in the economy pointing towards a quicker move towards higher interest rates and an end to the Fed’s stimulus package earlier than has been expected. Although the markets are all showing bearish tendencies this morning, they will probably settle down as the day develops ahead of tomorrow’s U.S. Job numbers (Non Farm Payroll)  With seemingly bad news from Ukraine, Gaza, Libya and now the Argentinian debt default, there is little to prompt the U.S. markets to reverse their recent short-term bearish trend – although traders may react positively to tomorrow’s data on employment even though it is expected to be down on June’s figures.

Oil had a bearish session yesterday too, with WTI Crude falling below the important $100 level where it is still hovering as I write this.  The main reason for this fall was increased weekly stockpile numbers at Cushing coupled with falling demand – and this general sentiment also brought Brent Crude down for the day as well. Optimism on the back on good U.S. GDP numbers hit the Gold value yesterday and with no safe-haven buying to prop the price up – it ended down over $3 at $1295.30.

13:10pm  ~  Not much happening on the few charts I’ve been watching over the last hour, so I’m off for lunch now and then I’m playing tennis this afternoon.

18:10pm  ~  I’ve just got back and switched on my S&P500 chart to see what’s going on with regard to my “Trade With A Day Job” evening strategy and I can see a trade has just triggered – I’m going to wait and see if I can join in at a slightly better entry level.

18:20pm  ~  I am in a ‘short’ position on the S&P with a stop loss of 23 pips.  The index, together with the narrower Dow Jones 30 has experienced a large fall since the U.S. session opened around 4 hrs ago although there has been a few attempts at a reversal so this will not be a long trade, it may only reach a 1:1 profit/loss ratio.

18:30pm  ~  I have come out of my position at +23 pips