07:20am CET (06:20 UK time)   An early start for me today as I have a few things to sort out here before I fly back to Stansted this afternoon. No trading for me today or tomorrow as I have a busy Wednesday in London visiting some friends at various spread betting companies.

Europe is the main focus for traders at the moment with Greek bond yields increasing yesterday yet again and are now at nearly 29% with the prospect that this week’s Eurogroup meeting of EU Finance Ministers are not going to reach any kind of concrete agreement.  It is also reported that the Greek government issued a call to all local government departments to transfer any excess funds in their bank accounts to them immediately, giving us an idea as to how serious the situation is becoming.

On top of all this there is the German ZEW Economic Sentiment release this morning which gives an idea of how investors and analysts are seeing the German economy as a whole although Friday’s IFO Survey is generally respected more, so there may not be a large correction this morning.  The German Dax 30 index has bounced off the 11,600 support level and is heading towards the next resistance area at 12,125 although with the Greek situation in the forefront it seems difficult to see the index reaching the record 12,400 record high from earlier this month.

Across the Atlantic both main indices had a positive session yesterday on the back of positive earnings from Morgan Stanley and Hasbro although less than exciting numbers from computer giant IBM were released after close of trading so there was a bearish reaction in the futures market overnight. As you can see from the numbers below, the wider S&P index of the 500 top U.S. companies has once again travelled over the significant 2100 level and is now looking like it will reach the 2121 record level that was seen in February.

Market Close Monday 20th April 2015:   Dow Jones 30  +208.63 @ 18,034.93  S&P 500  +19.22 @ 2,100.40  NASDAQ  +65.60 @ 4,417.40  FTSE 100  -8.32 @ 7,052.13  UK AIM  -0.63 @ 749.05  DAX 30  +203.21 @ 11,891.91  CAC 40  +44.33 @ 5,187.59  IBEX   +25.20 @ 11,384.60   Nikkei 225 (Today)  +274.60 @ 19,909.09  Hang Seng (currently)  +523.78 @ 27,618.71