08:40am   I had expected to be indoors today doing some chart watching but an unexpected invitation came in last night so I am away soon for the rest of the day – no more trading now until next Monday morning.

Market Update:

The main market news from the last 24hrs is the U.S. Federal Reserve’s unsurprising decision to raise their minimum lending rate to 1.25% as Janet Yellen and the rest of the FOMC deem the U.S. economy to be healthy enough for a second rise this year plus more in pipeline.  On the back of this news the Dow Jones 30 index closed up by 46 points (+0.22%)at the close although the wider S&P-500 dipped slightly at the end and finished down by 0.10% as energy stocks fell on the back of the declining oil price.  Traders are expecting that OPEC is going to have problems in keeping members in line for the promised production cuts and WTI Crude Oil fell $1:27 by last night to $44:65 and is further down this morning at $44:55.

The overnight Asian trading session closed mostly down after the Fed’s rate announcement although the main Chinese index (Shanghai Composite) ended up by 2 points at 3,132.667.  Falling oil prices were partly to blame for the negative sentiment plus many traders are skeptical that there is going to be another rate rise this year as conditions will not be as bullish as Janet Yellen is predicting.

The Gold price had a volatile session yesterday and closed down by $3.40 although the trading range for the day came in at $24.05 as investors brought money in and out of equity and commodity markets through the day. The price is marginally up this morning at $1261 and the daily chart is hinting at a small rise today.