07:55am  UK time ~ A nice easy start to the week for me today, I shall be here at home for most of the day catching up on emails and doing some chart watching every now and then.

The financial markets will possibly take on a bearish slant today after news out of China overnight showed that their exports fell 3.3% year on year and imports fell even further, down almost 20%. As China is the world’s second largest economy the repercussions will be felt both here in Europe and the U.S. and positive Non Farm Payroll employment numbers released on Friday have also been taken as a pessimistic sign as the money markets are now pricing in a Fed rate hike one month earlier than the previously and widely expected October 2015.  Added to this, there is still the ‘Greek’ problem with the European Central Bank and Germany’s Wolfgang Schäuble refusing to bend to Greece’s attempt at debt renegotiation although last night the new Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras gave a defiant speech to his people where he again insisted he was not giving way to European bullying.

U.S. Oil futures seemed to have hit a resistance level over the last week around $53.50 and expectedly low future demand from China will do nothing to increase the price in the next few days. On the flip side there is hope that lower production in the U.S. together with an improving economy over there as well will prop prices up in the long term and now there’s reported problems in Libya again which will hit crude exports, it does look as though there will be plenty of trading opportunities in Oil this week.  Gold values were hit on Friday as demand for safe haven investments was less following good U.S. jobs data, it fell over $30 to $1235 and is definitely in a bearish trend now with the next stop looking like $1222 although weak Chinese export data has helped it overnight, it’s currently slightly up at $1240.

Market Close Friday 6th February 2015:   Dow Jones 30  -60.59 @ 17,824.29  S&P 500  -7.05 @ 2,055.47  NASDAQ  -27.50 @ 4,228.68  FTSE 100  -12.49 @ 6,853.44  UK AIM  +2.55 @ 700.50  DAX 30  -50.02 @ 10,846.39  CAC 40  -12.27 @ 4,691.03  IBEX  +37.60 @ 10,573.10   Nikkei 225 (Today)  +63.43 @ 17,711.33  Hang Seng (currently)  -123.91 @ 24,555.48

10:05am  ~  Was going off for a quick cycle ride but I’ve just spotted a possible ‘long’ UTB trade on my S&P500 chart.

10:25am  ~  In the above position with a 18 pip stop loss. Unsurprisingly there is also the same opportunity on the German Dax30 and FTSE100 charts.

11:00am  ~  I am now off for a cycle ride so I’ve closed off my S&P trade as the buying momentum has slowed down slightly as well. I have managed +28 pips.

12:05pm  ~  Off to lunch and then some clay pigeon shooting for a few hours this afternoon, just had a text invitation.

17:00pm  ~  Got in a short while ago but I’m going to watch my S&P 500 chart for an hour or so to see if there are any ‘Trade With A Day Job’ opportunities.

17:10pm  ~   There was a price-reversal on the S&P index with a valid set-up so I am in ‘long’ with a 24 pip stop loss – slightly higher than normal for this particular strategy but there looks to be enough movement to accommodate me.

17:40pm  ~   Well that was quick trade as we’re out for the evening soon – I covered my stop loss with a +24 pip profit.