07:55am   No trading for me as it is Non Farm Payrolls day once again – back in front of my charts next Tuesday after a long weekend away.

Market Update:

U.S. markets ended Thursday’s session mixed with the Dow Jones 30 up slightly but the wider S&P-500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq both ended the day in negative territory as the post-election Trump rally starts to die down. U.S. futures are trading sideways at the moment ahead of the monthly jobs report in just over 5-hours time, the expectation is for a slight rise in jobs and if this does happen the case for a December rate rise by the Federal Reserve becomes even more compelling.

Europe is also in the spotlight with the Italian referendum on constitutional reform due this weekend where the ‘No’ campaign seem to have a slight lead in the polls. Prime Minister Renzi has staked his political future on the outcome and this is just one more example of unease within the EU, kicked off by the UK’s Brexit vote. If Renzi does lose the vote and resigns there are reasons too long to go into here that would put the Italian banking sector into further crisis so I am watching Sunday’s results with interest.

The other big market news this week has been OPEC’s meeting on the subject of wide-ranging production cuts and so far the markets have reacted well, U.S. WTI Crude has risen towards its next resistance level at $52:00 – currently sitting at $51:01 – it has so far enjoyed its biggest weekly rise since 2013 although there are signs of some profit taking during the overnight Asian trading session after it a high of $51.77.