07:15am  Away from my charts now until next Tuesday as I am helping finish a building project I’m involved in.

Market Update:

U.S. equity markets ended slightly down after a choppy session although the Nasdaq Index did buck this trend by posting its fourth winning day in a row. The Dow Jones 30 and S&P-500 has been trading in a fairly narrow band for the last eight weeks as traders try to guess what the Federal Reserve’s decision will be regarding the September interest rate debate. The general consensus seems to be ‘no rise’ and this is benefiting Gold at the moment, it has had a good run-up since last Thursday and is now heading for the next minor resistance at $1357 (currently $1347.40)

The overnight Asian market ended mainly down except for the Hang Seng Index which closed 0.50% up and the European session has started slightly up ahead of the European Central Bank meeting and its Governor Mario Draghi’s speech in a few hours. There is no real expectation of a rate rise but traders will be listening out for some forward guidance regarding the bank’s policy for the rest of the year.

Thursday is U.S. Crude Oil Inventories and the expectation is for a large draw on stocks and this was the main driver behind a 1.5% rise in the WTI Crude price yesterday, it closed at $46.11 last night and is up slightly this morning at $46.35.