08:35am CET (07:35 UK)  ~  Late start this morning after getting in at 2am and I shall mainly be helping the builders here today but I may have a look at some charts occasionally.

The markets were still in a bullish mood yesterday with gains across Europe but the newsflash last night that announced that a doctor returning from Africa to New York has contracted ebola  and this sent the Dow Jones and S&P500 into a tails spin and the Nasdaq index also lost over 20 points in under an hour. This extreme reaction to non economic news gives the impression that the foundations that this latest bullish move is built on is not as secure as many traders think. That movement apart, the main indices have staged an impressive move up in the past and the retracement on the S&P 500 is now sitting at the 61.8% level, so may prove to be critical today and technical traders may expect a move down today.

Gold is suffering slightly this week from advancing equity markets and together with the move into the U.S. Dollar meant another move down for the precious metal and the recent high at $1255 seems to be establishing itself as the top of a trading channel that goes down to the important $1180 support.  Crude oil was given a boost yesterday after reports from Saudi Arabia that oil production in the country fell for the month, so U.S. WTI Crude gained almost $1.50 on the news to finish at $81.87 although overall the price is still in a bearish trend heading back to the $80 support level.

Market Close Thursday 23rd Oct. 2014:   Dow Jones 30  +216.58 @ 16,667.90  S&P 500  +23.71 @ 1,950.82  NASDAQ  +62.68 @ 4,012.27  FTSE 100  +19.42 @ 6,419.15  DAX 30  +107.17 @ 9.047.31  CAC 40  +52.59 @ 4,157.68  IBEX  +83.80 @ 10,333.70

9:25am ~ Just come inside for a quick break and look at a couple of charts but nothing of note is developing on my favourites.

10:50am  ~  Looked a couple of minutes ago at my charts and there does seem to be a UTB pattern setting up on the S&P 500 chart. Have just missed a ‘short’ on the Brent Oil chart as I’ve been outside.

11:10am  ~  I am now in the aforementioned ‘short’ UTB trade, my stop loss on the position is 24 pips.

13:55pm  ~  I am taking all the builders and labourers out for lunch in a minute so I’ve close off my S&P trade, the result is +40 pips

18:10pm  ~  Back from lunch and also the end to my trading for the week. I had a total of 8 trades over four days with no losses and ended up with +476 pips

Daily Target  +20 pips

Pips Achieved  +40 pips