09:20am  ~  A late start as there’s no trading for me today as we are off to Majorca at lunchtime and I have a few errands and jobs to do before then.

U.S. markets were caught with the usual bad news is good news syndrome yesterday after disappointing jobs data together with lower than expected ISM Manufacturing numbers as well so initially the announcement was greeted with a trader’s buying spree as it was seen that the forthcoming interest rate rise would be out on hold until the economy recovers slightly but close to the end of the session there was a bout of profit taking and both main U.S. indices ended slightly down on the day.  Tomorrow is Non Farm Payrolls day and for most of the world it is a bank holiday so today may well be a bit quiet as far as indices are concerned as many traders are not going to be able to trade.

The crude oil market also moved at odds to the data – there was another build in stocks at Cushing, Wyoming which should have put further pressure on values but contrary to this U.S. WTI Crude rose on the day by just over $2 to $49:55 although expectations of failure of talks with Iran meant that there would not be a lifting in sanctions meaning Iranian oil production would still be heavily controlled and this seemed to out-trump the very high stock in the U.S.   Disappointing U.S. economic data had investors moving over to Gold yesterday and as I suggested yesterday, the price rose above $1190 and kept going upwards to a session high at $1207 although it has retraced slightly overnight and is currently sitting at $1202.

 Market Close Wednesday 1st April 2015:   Dow Jones 30  -77.94 @ 17,698.18  S&P 500  -8.20 @ 2,059.69  NASDAQ  -22.43 @ 4,311.26  FTSE 100  +36.46 @ 6,809.50  UK AIM  -0.88 @ 715.32  DAX 30  +35.21 @ 12,001.38  CAC 40  +28.58 @ 5,062.22  IBEX  +48.70 @ 11,569.80   Nikkei 225 (Today)  +277.95 @ 19,312.79  Hang Seng (currently)  +185.24 @ 25,267.99