08:35am   I am still helping the builders rip apart my house so I do not envisage any time for chart watching today but tomorrow looks free for some trading.

Market Update:

European markets on Monday closed mostly up as Banks and Telecoms were bullish through the session and U.S. equities were equally as bullish with the Dow Jones 30 index surging over 140 points by the end of the evening to reach yet another record high (26,214.60). The Nasdaq and S&P-500 indices also finished at levels not seen before, Netflix helped the tech-centred index and energy and telecoms assisted the S&P’s rise. With the spending limit lifted after Republicans and Democrats coming to an agreement late in the day, the futures markets are looking more bullish now, the S&P-500 is at 2838.15, well ahead of last night’s close at 2816.88.

The overnight Asian session was also buoyed by U.S. trader’s optimism and most markets closed in positive territory early this morning. The Bank Of Japan is holding monetary policy steady for the meantime and LG initially lost some ground after the U.S. announced increased import tariffs but the stock did recover later in the session.  Gold experienced a small sell-off at the end of last week, touching the $1325 support/resistance level briefly but it has taken off again although yesterday’s session was negative by 80 cents, closing at $1333.80 but is fairing better this morning and is currently sitting at $1336.20.

Oil is well supported at the moment with a generally healthy global economic outlook and ongoing production curbs by OPEC and Russia, the world benchmark Brent Crude rose 44 cents during Monday’s session to close at $68.81 and is slightly up this morning at $68.97.  Traders are generally bullish as they can see the agreed cuts for 2018 being extended as overall global consumption is going to gradually decrease as electric vehicles become more prominent and the plastics industry is increasingly seen as global problem that needs to be addressed.