08:20am   Back in front of my charts today after a long-weekend break so any trades I find will be detailed in my Trading Diary below.

Market Update:

U.S. indices closed up on Monday with the Dow Jones posting its third largest points gain in history. It closed up 669 points at 24,202.60 (+2.84%) as concerns that a trade war with China may not be as serious as first thought after China has made the first conciliatory move by suggesting that they buy more semiconductors from the U.S. to help cut the trade surplus and there is also rumours that the two countries are talking about improving U.S. access to Chinese markets.

This sentiment also spilled over to the overnight Asian trading session, the Japanese Nikkei-225 index rose 2.29% by the close and the South Korean Kospi advanced by 0.67% despite Samsung closing in the red. Virtually all other indices in the region ended positively and there are also rumours that North Korea’s president is in China on a top secret visit which is seen as positive news for relations in the area.

European markets are opening largely positive this morning as trade war fears are beginning to ease and Gold is unexpectedly still rising despite money flowing into equities, it rose $5.40 by the close last night at $1353.20 anmd looks to be heading for the $1360 level in the next few days were it may well reverse.  Oil markets are seeing a surge in price this morning as continuing rumours that the U.S. is going to impose new sanctions on Iran have surfaced again. WTI Crude Oil fell slightly yesterday to close at $65.45 (-22 cents) but is up 20 cents this morning.

Trading Diary:

10:10am   Nothing to see so far on my list of favourite charts so I am for a run.

13:05pm   Just taken a ‘short’ position on my Gold 30-min chart, it’s a Master-The-Trend Strategy-B set-up and my stop loss is 34 pips.

13:15pm   I have taken a quick profit from the Gold trade, the price has hit the ‘large’ number of $1340 and reversed upwards as expected so I am out with a +37 pip profit.  Off for late lunch.

15:10pm  I’m back home but switching my charts off now as some friends have just popped in and I have a feeling it’s not a “5-minute visit”