08:40am  No trading for me today as it’s Non Farm Payrolls day in the U.S. and markets can be slightly unpredictable, I’ve found over the last 25 years that it’s best to stay away from the charts until everything’s settled down. I will be back in front of my screens next Tuesday and I hope you all have a nice relaxing weekend.

Market Update:

Markets in Europe and the U.S. closed higher on Thursday with American indices posting further record highs with the financial and technology companies leading the move up. Banks and associated companies were in favour as yields rose after the senate passed a $4.1 trillion budget which is seen as the first step in Trump’s tax reform plans. The S&P-500 rose to a high of 2552.90 before closing at 2552.07 which was its sixth record close in a row, the best performance since 1997 although today’s moves are less obvious as we have the monthly jobs numbers out in around 5 hours time so equity markets will be fairly quiet in the run up and then volatile for the rest of today’s session.

The overnight Asian trading session was upbeat after the higher U.S. close with nearly all markets finishing in positive territory apart from the Shanghai Composite and South Korean Kospi index which were still closed for national holidays. Crude oil values are still being supported by hopes that OPEC and Russia are going to work together with production cuts well into 2018 although prospects of another storm in the U.S. Gulf region could increase crude stocks if petroleum production is disrupted once again. WTI Crude rose 87 cents during yesterday’s session to close at $50:73 and is holding steady around the same level this morning.  Gold is still suffering from the flow of money into equities at the moment, it fell $7:00 yesterday to end the session at $1268:00 but we may see a slowing of the bearish momentum soon as it gets close to its 200-day moving average at $1263:60. Watch for a possible price reaction around this level.