07:15am   Early start for me today as I am helping a neighbour with repairs to his vintage car, so no trading unless we get finished earlier than anticipated.

Market Update:

After an encouraging jobs report from the U.S. on Friday, the markets are all ready for good moves at the start of this new trading week. Equity markets here in the UK and in the United States had a largely flat November but the Germans did buck that trend with their dax 30 index finishing last month up by nearly 600 points although last week it gave back 408 of those pips.

This week sees a raft of economic news from China, the world’s second largest economy so most markets will inevitably be affected by their trade balance and inflation number when they’re released in the next few days and then retail sales on Saturday. Another big focus this week will be crude oil values due to OPEC’s decision to keep their daily production levels steady at 31.8 million barrels instead of reducing that number as many of their members had wished for. Countries that rely on oil revenue to balance their books have been having a hard time over the last few years since the pric eof crude fell from around $107 per barrel in June 2014 to its current price of just under $40. Larger OPEC members including Saudi Arabia are determined to force U.S. shale producers out of the market but unfortunately many smaller African members are finding it hard to survive with such low oil prices.