09:25am  Late start today as there’s no trading for me due to 1) it’s Non Farm Payrolls once again and 2) it’s not often I watch my charts on a Friday as I prefer to start my weekend early.  I will be back in front of my charts next Tuesday after a long weekend break away.

My trading this week has produced +151 pips after 5 winning trades and 2 losers.

Market Update:

U.S. markets are looking bullish once again and the S&P-500 is on its way back to the record highs reached last week. All three major indices finished ahead last night and they’ve advanced more overnight in futures trading as news that the looming government shutdown has once again averted (for another month)  The tech-centred Nasdaq was the best performer of the three, advancing by 0.5% helped by good rises from Facebook and Amazon.

The overnight Asian trading session was buoyed by the optimism in the U.S. which gave it a good start and then Japanese GDP came in better than expected at +2.5% and Chinese data on trade came in higher than expectations as well. The best performer of the night was the Japanese Nikkei-225 which closed 313 points ahead at 22,811.08 (+1.39%)  Gold has fallen well below its 200-day moving average in the past few days and is also under the significant $1260 support level for the first time since August. There was a feeling of bargain hunting in the market last night as traders took advantage of the low price and this helped raise the price $5:80 during the Asian session to $1249:50 but trading in the last few hours has seen the price drop back down to $1245:80.

Crude oil prices are holding relatively steady and U.S. WTI Crude seems to have found limited support at $55:70 as the firmer U.S. Dollar is countered by increasing demand from China and hope that OPEC’s production limits are going to have the desired effect for members.  The U.S. benchmark was falling at the beginning of this week but reversed at the aforementioned $55:70 level and is now sitting at $57:05 after some enthusiastic buying in the futures markets this morning.