08:50am   No trading for me today as it’s Non Farm Payrolls once again, I will be back in front of my charts next Tuesday – I hope you all have a relaxing weekend break.

Market Update:

U.S. markets closed marginally higher last night as news emerged that sweeping import tariffs proposed by President Trump could be watered down for certain regions and futures trading overnight was also bullish after it was announced that the U.S. leader is willing to meet North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un for talks over denuclearisation. The Dow Jones closed up by 93.85 points (+0.38%) at 24,895.23 and the wider S&P-500 closed up slightly more at 2738.97 (+0.45%).

The overnight Asian trading session tracked the earlier bullishness in the U.S. and virtually all indices closed positively with the Chinese Shanghai Composite coming in with the highest increase at +0.58%. Traders in the region are also encouraged by the prospect of U.S./North Korean relations becoming less ‘frosty’ so we could see this positive sentiment spilling into next week.  This morning’s European trading session seems to be opening mixed as traders/investors await the U.S. monthly jobs numbers which are being released in a few hours, yesterday’s session was broadly bullish though and closed ahead for the fourth session in a row.

Oil traders see the Trump/Jong-Un meeting as positive as well and WTI Crude is on the march upwards, it is at $60.37, up on last night’s close of $60.25 and we have seen a certain amount of support at the $60.00 level over the last few weeks so we may see further rises through next week.