07:30am   We’re off shopping at Bluewater after lunch but before then I shall be here in the study catching up on emails and doing some chart watching.

Market Update:

Asian markets ended mixed earlier this morning after the Japanese Nikkei rose initially on a weaker Yen but then fell back after Chinese equities lost more ground and traders became cautious ahead of tomorrow’s U.S. job numbers. Here in Europe, the Greek situation seems to be a distant memory for traders and the German Dax 30 index has now had seven positive sessions in a row and is heading towards the 11,800 level in the near future although the FTSE 100 in London may have a volatile day as Bank Of England Governor Mark Carney will give us some forward guidance on the imminent interest rate rise.

In the U.S. most trader’s focus is on tomorrow’s Non Farm Payroll numbers so today’s markets will be quite subdued as they finely adjust their positions before the announcement at lunchtime Friday (UK time) Disappointing U.S. trade balance and ADP employment numbers yesterday did not weigh too heavily on the main Dow Jones 30 index but a cut in the profit forecast for Walt Disney caused the index to drop into negative territory at the end of Wednesday’s session, down 10 pips on the day even though the wider S&P 500 ended up 6 points.

U.S. WTI Crude Oil inventories dropped by over 4 million barrels according to the weekly numbers out yesterday but despite this, the price dropped 85 cents on worries that forthcoming maintenance for refineries will bring a large increase in stockpiles initially. it ended the day down at $45:13 with UK Brent Crude also in negative territory at $49:68.

Trading Diary:

08:20am   Not much happening on my charts at the moment so I am off for cycle ride along the coastal path for a few hours.

10:40am   Back from cycle ride and we’ve decided to go off shopping early so no more chart watching/trading today.