08:45am  I am planning a quiet day at home catching up on emails and Skype calls and also some chart watching from time to time so any trades I take will be detailed below in my Trading Diary.

Market Update:

U.S. markets closed in negative territory once again last night as the fall-out from Gary Cohen’s resignation still bites but there has been some good news on Trump’s tariff plans as White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders says there may well be some allowances for Canada and Mexico which will be announced before the end of this week. The Dow Jones closed 82.76 points down on the day at 24,801.36 although it had been down nearly 300 points at one stage and the S&P-500 finished Wednesday’s session almost flat at 2726.80 (-0.05%) although there is a bearish slant to the Daily chart this morning as the rice struggles to see any upside above 2720.

The overnight Asian trading session ended slightly more optimistic than the previous day as potential trade tariff exemptions has stoked hopes that Trump may also look at helping Asian companies that export to the U.S.   The Shanghai Composite ended up 0.54% after encouraging trade data was released and steel producers across the region gained on news that there could be tariff exemptions for steel and aluminium being exported into the U.S.   Gold fell during Wednesday’s session to close at $1325.20 down by $12.00 after a good rise on Tuesday on the back of concerns of a global trade war. The price has steadied in the last few hours and is up to $1327.70, up $2.50 on last night’s close.

Oil prices have fallen dramatically on soaring U.S. crude stocks, WTI Crude ended Wednesday’s session at $61.24 down by 91 cents although futures prices stabilised overnight but are now showing further signs of declines as the European trading session gets underway. Record U.S. oil production is holding values down, the countries output at 10.37 million barrels per day (BPD) is an all time high and is now ahead of Saudi Arabia.  Traders are wondering how long OPEC are going to show restraint in the face of growing U.S. oil production and with Russia may find it difficult to face losing market share to the U.S. shale industry.

Trading Diary:

09:30am   If the price falls sufficiently on the German DAX-30 there will be a ‘short’ trade imminently so watching the chart closely at the moment.

09:45am   Now in the above mentioned position, it’s a Master-The-Trend Strategy-B pattern with a 23 pip stop loss.

10:55am   Taken a quick profit as I have meetings here for the next couple of hours.  Score +38 pips & I will send out a chart screenshot to all customers showing exact details after lunch.

14:50pm   Back from an extended lunch and there’s nothing much to get excited about on my collection of favourite charts so I am going to call it a day and switch off my screens. Tomorrow is Non Farm Payrolls in the U.S. so as usual I will not be trading . Back  at my desk (& charts) next Tuesday.