08:55am CET (07:55 UK time)  Still not back home yet so probably no trading today as the internet is proving quite unreliable – will be returning home on Thursday I am predicting.

Market Update:

January and February have not been great months for equity markets so perhaps March can change the trend as we move towards the end of the first quarter of 2016.  UK and U.S. markets are largely unchanged over the past month but the German Dax-30 has suffered overall losses and is well down on its 2015 close and is now sitting at the same level it was in September 2014 having wiped out all of 2015′s rise.

Asian markets ended mostly positively after the People’s Bank of China announced the lowering of their reserve requirement ratios on its banks by 0.5% in the hope that it will push more cash into the Chinese economy and this rise in equities was despite manufacturing numbers that came out lower again – the 7th drop in a row.  There seemed to be no surprises regarding the Chinese bank’s policy announcement as the G20 meeting has just ended so the finer details were probably discussed with other countries beforehand.

Oil markets are continuing their slow rise with the U.S. benchmark WTI now at $34:02 having moved up just under a Dollar yesterday. Here in Europe, Brent Crude is similarly bullish at $35:92 currently, well off its lows of $27:00 just a few months ago.