08:25am   Normal service is being resumed today after some issues with the building work here at home yesterday which ended up with all our electric off for 18 hours.  My plan is to be around the house for most of the day so any trades I take will be detailed below in my Trading Diary.

Market Update:

European markets on Wednesday ticked lower after a sell-off in Italian Government Bonds which was prompted by concerns that an anti-establishment government would be formed in the country and also the monthly Eurozone consumer confidence survey fell again hinting at tough times to come for companies in the area.  Later in the day, the U.S. markets closed marginally up after a largely negative session after the Fed said they would be agreeable to letting inflation run ahead of their target in the short term. Stocks were down earlier in the day on worries over the U.S./China trade talks collapsing but at finish the Dow Jones was up +0.21% and the S&P-500 was ahead by +0.32%.

The overnight Asian trading session had a negative slant for most of the night as traders concentrated on news that President Trump had ordered a probe regarding car imports into the U.S. so Japanese and South Korean automakers were hit hard – the Japanese Nikkei-225 index fell 252 points by the close although the Hang Seng index and ASX-200 did manage to reverse earlier losses and finish in positive territory.

Oil markets were volatile on Wednesday following the weekly U.S. inventories number but ultimately close slightly up but there is some selling this morning as OPEC is expected to recommend to its members that they increase production in the short term to compensate for a reduced supply from Venezuela and Iran. WTI Crude closed last night at $79.72, up by a mere 13 cents but is down at $79.48 this morning.

Gold price are still in the doldrums after falling virtually constantly since the beginning of April and reaching a low of $1282 on Monday.  The price has tried to advance but is failing to make much headway although the Fed’s stance on inflation has given traders an excuse to start buying and it has risen $2.41 this morning and is currently sitting at $1296.47. This level is just at the 20-day moving average so watch for trading opportunities if the price starts to reverse.

Trading Diary:

11:50pm   Due to fairly volatile price action on a lot of my usual charts this morning, I have had no trades up until now – I have just taken a ‘short’ position on my U.S. WTI Crude Oil 15-min chart.  It’s a Master-The-Trend Strategy-A set-up with a “massive” 9 pip stop loss.

12:20pm    Out for lunch and as the trade has done well, I’ve brought my stop loss up to +10 pips but left the target open.

14:25pm   Just got back home and seen my WTI trade was at +76 pips so I’ve closed it now. That will probably do me for the day.