08:15am   I am having a day away from the markets and spending it with the family although I will be putting the final touches to my monthly Trading-Education eBook which is due for release over the weekend. I will be back in front of my screens on Tuesday.

Market Update:

I am reporting yet another record high close for equity markets in the U.S. with the Dow Jones 30 index closing at 26,392.79 (+140.67) which was slightly down on the day’s high at 26,458. The surge was attributed to corporate earnings which once again came in higher than expected with Caterpillar and 3M leading the charge with optimistic fourth quarter earnings.  The tech-heavy Nasdaq was less bullish and closed slightly down and the S&P-500 was just 0.1% ahead by the end of the evening.

The overnight Asian trading session closed mixed with a rise int the U.S. Dollar following President Trump’s comments on its forthcoming strength affecting exporters in the region. The Nikkei-225 and Australian ASX-200 both finished in negative territory although the two Chinese indices closed slightly up after a volatile session. Oil is starting to give up some of this week’s gains as the Dollar strengthened and concerns were voiced over a slowing demand as we go towards the milder spring weather. Brent Crude fell 87 cents yesterday to close last night at $69.56, just under the significant $70 level although we could see a small move upto the $70.25 level today.

Gold hit a long term resistance level at $1365 during yesterday’s session and pulled back to finish the day in negative territory at $1348.20 but we have seen a resurgence this morning during the Asian trading session and the commodity is back upto $1355.50 currently.