07:25am CET (06:25 UK Time)  ~  Up early but no trading for me today as I am helping the builders on their final day here after two months of work.

The up and down of the equity markets continued yesterday as the main U.S. Dow Jones 30 index fell 291 points by the close of the session after disappointing durable goods figures together with worse than expected earnings from Caterpillar and Microsoft. The broader S&P500 also lost 275 pips but is staying above the 2000 level for time being but the tech-heavy Nasdaq index suffered worst losing 2.5% (110 points).  Europe also witnessed widespread losses on the back of Greek worries although equities are due to open higher because of the late rally across the Atlantic.

The Crude Oil market was in a bullish mood, the U.S. WTI gained 65 cents to $45.80 as bargain hunters controlled trading for most of the day although inventory numbers at Cushing released later today may halt its progress, there are estimations that stocks have grown by over 4 million barrels.

Gold briefly fell below the important $1280 level yesterday and with it brought in technical traders to resume the march upwards that began in November. The next resistance level is at $1300 so if equity markets continue to be volatile this week we may see that point reached.

Market Close Tuesday 27th January 2015:   Dow Jones 30  -291.49 @ 17,387.21  S&P 500  -27.54 @ 2,029.55  NASDAQ  -110.21 @ 4,165.50  FTSE 100  -40.79 @ 6,811.61  UK AIM  -5.43 @ 689.01  DAX 30  -169.75 @ 10,628.58  CAC 40  -50.92 @ 4,624.21  IBEX  -97.20 @ 10,598.90   Nikkei 225 (Today)  +27.43 @ 17,795.73  Hang Seng (currently)  +41.83 @ 24,849.11