08:20am   Another day away from my charts as I prepare for the big day on Saturday.

Market Update:

U.S. markets surged yesterday and the S&P-500 index had its best day in two months as bank stocks lead the bullish sentiment. It was announced that the major U.S. banks passed Fed stress tests plus are returning record amounts to shareholders and this news bolstered optimism across all sectors as traders see this as a sign of a positive future for the financial sector.  The Asian session benefited from this and virtually all indices in the region closed ahead and traders also took comfort from various central banker’s comments thorough the day which all pointing to renewed strength in most global economies.

Oil also has a positive session after the U.S. Energy Information Administration announced that crude stocks rose just over 118,000 barrels during the last seven days but the weekly production dropped to 9.3 million barrels per day a reduction of around 100,000 –  this was the biggest drop in the weekly output numbers since summer 2016. The news bolstered crude price once again and WTI Crude closed Wednesday’s session at $44:90 (+$1:38) and is still climbing higher as the European session gets underway this morning, it is now at $45:10 although we could see a small decline at the 20-day moving average.

The current U.S. Dollar weakness is having a positive effect on Gold as it makes dollar-denominated gold cheaper for holders of other currencies and this usually creates an increase in demand although equity strength has trumped this as we begin the European trading session, it is down by $5:80 at $1246:60 at the moment after staging a bearish reversal at its 20-day moving average.