07:20am    Early start for me today as we are away for a long weekend break in Norfolk but first some emails to catch up on. No trading for me now until next Tuesday when we’re back home.

Market Update:

Not much big news at the moment to move the markets significantly yesterday although the weekend will bring Chinese services and manufacturing PMI numbers so Sunday night’s market open should be quite volatile and this will slow trading volumes today as traders move to a  fairly neutral stance. Here in Europe, the IMF has weighed into the Greek debate by stating that previously mentioned debt right off  for Greece will now have to be written into the bail-out agreement otherwise they will walk away from negotiations. On the other side of the table, Germany has already confirmed they are not in favour of any such debt relief so although a deal was announced last week the markets could be spooked again before the next Greek debt repayment is due in August.

In the Crude Oil market, U.S. WTI Crude resumed its bearish journey yesterday, falling nearly 50 cents to $48:44 and overnight Asian moves have also been down. Amid cronic oversupply, the price does seem to be heading towards the support level at $47:00 and over on the Gold market the story is similiar – it fell over $8 during Thursday’s session to finish at $1088:40 and is now heading towards a long term support at $1045.