08:45am CET (07:45 UK time)  ~  No trading for me today, I am off on a fishing trip soon.

Traders eyes and ears will be on the ECB announcement today as it is widely expected that they will announce a €50 Billion per month Bond buying programme. Germany is against the move but Mediterranean countries will be ones who can benefit best from the money printing exercise. The German argument is that these countries are now being helped out of recession even though they are reluctant to help themselves by reigning back their spending and increasing taxes. The European Central Bank should make their announcement during the press conference at 14:30 today (13:30 UK time) in Frankfurt so this may be a time to be out of any European-based trading positions.

Equities yesterday were dominated by the Crude Oil market and the rebound in WTI and Brent Oil prices was caused by the OPEC Secretary General El-Badri announcing that that crude prices should rebound soon rather than falling down towards $20 per barrel.  This small piece of news caused the U.S. Crude price to move upwards by 68 cents by the close to $47.33 and is slightly higher this morning at $47.50. UK Brent Crude had a similiar rise yesterday as well, rising around 50 cents to $48.72 but both charts are still in decline, moving towards their respective resistance levels.

Market Close Wednesday 21st January 2015:   Dow Jones 30  +39.05 @ 17,554.28  S&P 500  +9.57 @ 2,032.12  NASDAQ  +20.88 @ 4,192.09  FTSE 100  +107.94 @ 6,728.04  UK AIM  +1.32 @ 699.97  DAX 30  +42.10 @ 10,299.23  CAC 40  +38.80 @ 4,484.82  IBEX  +51.40 @ 10,335.30   Nikkei 225 (Today)  +48.54 @ 17,329.02  Hang Seng (currently)  +164.66 @ 24,517.24