08:05am CET (07:05 UK time)  ~  As with most building projects, there’s been an overun with mine so I am helping the builders again today – so no trading once again for me today.

The main news in the markets yesterday was last night’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting minutes which sees the U.S. economy as ‘solid’ which traders took to mean that a June rate hike is still on the cards, and this sentiment drove the major indices down – the leading Dow Jones 30 fell 270 points (-1.13%) to 17,185 by the close last night with the wider S&P500 down over 1.3%. The falling value of the Dollar is also weighing heavily on U.S. equity markets as domestic exporters are finding their products more expensive although Apple are bucking that trend at the moment of course with record profits for any company in the world – and on top of these massive earnings there are reports of a $170 Billion bank balance as well for the phone maker.

Weekly Crude Oil inventory numbers were announced yesterday and a larger than expected rise in stocks hit the oil market – U.S. WTI Crude fell $1.40 to $44.38 by the close last night with UK Brent Crude following closely behind and lower equity values reflect on lower perceived demand for oil which also puts pressure on prices. Gold failed to rise up towards the $1300 resistance level and instead fell nearly $10 yesterday to $1283 and is heading towards the near term support at $1272 this morning after a largely negative overnight Asian session.

Market Close Wednesday 28th January 2015:   Dow Jones 30  -195.84 @ 17,191.37  S&P 500  -27.39 @ 2,002.16  NASDAQ  -25.13 @ 4,140.38  FTSE 100  +14.33 @ 6,825.94  UK AIM  +1.45 @ 690.46  DAX 30  +82.39 @ 10,710.97  CAC 40  -13.27 @ 4,610.94  IBEX  -142.00 @ 10,456.90   Nikkei 225 (Today)  -189.51 @ 17,606.22  Hang Seng (currently)  -290.72 @ 24,571.09