09:40am CET (8:40 UK time)  ~  A very late start for me this morning after getting home at 3am —  a day at home doing emails, Skype calls and chart watching is going to be the order of the day I suspect. I will report back throughout the day if I have any positions.

The markets look to be in a bullish morning after a positive end to the U.S. session last night and also a surprise announcement overnight during the Asian session by the Bank Of Japan who announced more stimulus measures to help stave off deflationary pressures in the country’s economy.  As a result both major U.S. indices closed at October highs and Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 ended up nearly 5% and hit a 7-year high in intraday trading. As a result S&P 500 futures thois morning have rallied further and are sitting around the high of September 19th just before the large correction.

Over here in Europe the story is completely different with the spectre of recession still looming large as ECB President Mario Draghi is still dragging his heels regarding any monetary stimulus.  German economic figures this month have all been disappointing and well below expectations and now it would appear that the Greek economic problems are returning as the anti-austerity Syriza Party is close to gaining power which may threaten the bail-out agreement that the country had with the ECB.

Gold has hit a 4-year low this morning after the equity market rally in Asian in the past few hours and left behind the support level around $1182 and glancing at my chart it is currently sitting at $1176.  This slump has surprised many traders I have talked to in recent days as there is record Russian purchasing and a looming European economic problem to give investors plenty of reasons to drive the price upwards.

Market Close Thursday 30th Oct. 2014:   Dow Jones 30  +221.11 @ 17,195.42  S&P 500  +12.35 @ 1,994.65  NASDAQ  +10.08 @ 4,100.64  FTSE 100  +9.68 @ 6,463.55  UK AIM -0.61 @ 714.58  DAX 30  +32.03 @ 9,114.84  CAC 40  +30.60 @ 4,141.24  IBEX  +15.90 @ 10,263.70  Nikkei 225  +755.56 @ 16,413.76  Hang Seng  +243.59  @ 23,945.63

10:20am CET ~  Just checked my charts again and there’s not much happening at the moment so I’l going off for a cycle ride for an hour or so.

13:25pm CET  ~  Have been watching my charts on and off for the past couple of hours but no opportunities, so we’re off for lunch in town and then shopping in Palma for the rest of the day.