08:10am CET (07:10 UK Time)   No trading for me today, out ocean fishing with some trader friends in a few hours so I’m here in the study early doing emails and a couple of Skype calls before I go off.

There was feeling of pessimism in U.S. and Asian markets yesterday and early this morning as traders worry about the short term prospects of global economic growth. There is also the looming problem of the imminent Fed rate rise and traders are split at the moment as to whether it’s going to be June or November/December but as we are well into reporting season we should have a better idea at this month’s FOMC meeting, so far this week we are seeing disappointing company results, well below expectations.

Here in Europe the Greek situation marches on as rumours of a snap election is denied in Athens by government officials but the problem does seem insurmountable at the moment due to the stalemate between the new Syriza government with its leader Alex Tsipras and the ECB and the other lenders to the country – there should be some news by the end of this week and we may know by then whether Greece is heading for an exit from the Euro.

News in the Crude Oil market was dominated by the U.S. Energy Information Administration saying that there should be a drop in shale production this month, the first drop in 4 years. The level of production is set to fall by around 45,000 barrels a day to 5 million which should see prices firm up although OPEC will probably take the opportunity to fill the gap left by U.S. companies as they are reluctant to see a reason for prices to rise due to production shortages. WTI Crude was in a bullish mood on the back of this news and finished up 28 cents at nearly $52 and does seem to be heading towards the $54 resistance level by the end of this week.

Market Close Monday 13th April 2015:   Dow Jones 30  -80.61 @ 17,977.04  S&P 500  -9.63 @ 2,092.43  NASDAQ  -12.81 @ 4,409.21  FTSE 100  +48.94 @ 7,064.30  UK AIM  +3.38 @ 739.03  DAX 30  -36.00 @ 12,338.73  CAC 40  +13.66 @ 5,254.12  IBEX   +117.10 @ 11,866.40   Nikkei 225 (Today)  -20.98 @ 19,884.48  Hang Seng (currently)  -279.89 @ 27,736.45

All times below are CET (UK Time +1hr)