08:20am    I was in two minds as to whether I should be trading today as U.S. markets are closed for their Thanksgiving holiday but I am slightly behind with emails and other admin work so will be here at my desk anyway for most of the day so I will glance at my collection of favourite charts from time to time to see if any opportunities pop up. Any positions I take will be detailed below in my Trading Diary.

Market Update:

European markets closed slightly lower on the whole yesterday as traders digested UK Chancellor Philip Hammond’s comments on the countries economy in his budget speech yesterday.  There was also no exciting corporate news across the rest of Europe to push buyers into action either and this sentiment seems to be carrying on this morning as markets open for Thursday’s session.

The U.S. trading session yesterday closed with the Nasdaq index closed at another record high after rising 0.1% to 6867.36 as Amazon rose 1% on news of a major deal with healthcare company Cerner.  Although the tech sector was higher, the two other main indices (S&P-500 and Dow Jones 30) closed slightly down after Federal Reserve minutes of the last FOMC meeting showed concerns over the large rise in equity markets this year and the impact on the economy as a whole.

The overnight Asian session finished mixed at best with most bourses down on earlier Fed comments and the Chinese Shanghai Composite was the biggest loser of the night, falling 2.26% by the close with tech and healthcare contributing most to the losses.  Gold had a positive session through most of Wednesday as equity markets failed to shine, the commodity rose $11:20 by the close to finish at $1291:90 although a bearish trend line may cap prices for the next week or so.  I will send over a chart to explain this morning to customers.

Crude oil inventories in the U.S. are still showing declines and this is keeping futures prices up at their present levels and the shut down of the largest pipeline between Canada and the U.S. is also aiding the supply squeeze. The Keystone pipeline is responsible for transporting 590,00 barrels per day into the U.S. from Canada and has been closed since last Thursday after a leak caused 210,000 gallons to be spilled in South Dakota and this is affecting supply from the oil sancds of Alberta.  U.S. WTI Crude is currently at $57:83, down on last night’s close of $58:02.

Trading Diary:

10:25am    Just taken a ‘long’ position on my 15-min German DAX-30 chart, it’s a Master-The-Trend Strategy-B+ set-up with a 20 pip stop loss.

11:15am    I came out of my position a short while ago and I’ll send out a chart screenshot later as I am off for a cycle ride now with neighbours.  The score was +47 pips.

15:55pm  Just back from a late lunch and a glance of my collection of favourite charts shows me lower than normal volumes due mainly to the closure of the U.S. markets so screens are now off, back tomorrow morning.