09:30am    Had an early morning cycle ride along the beach path so this Market Update is slightly later than usual today.  Any trades I have will be reported here although I am in and out of the house most of the day.

Market Update:

European markets had a generally bearish day yesterday which was sparked mainly by a particularly underwhelming U.S. Empire State Manufacturing Index report for August which was well below expectations and showed that manufacturing companies in the New York area had a generally pessimistic view of the economy at the moment. The report was out at lunchtime European time and affected the German Dax 30 index the greatest as their economy is fairly heavily weighted towards manufacturing.  Although U.S. indices fell initially on the announcement as Monday’s session got underway, it quickly recovered and ended slightly up on the day after bargain-hunters stepped after a few hours. Today’s focus over there is the house market with Housing Starts and Building Permit numbers out as their session starts, the number of new houses being started in August is expected to show a slight rise but either way there will be a reaction in the markets.

The price of crude oil is still falling and U.S. WTI Crude has now fallen below the fairly solid $42:00 support level now with traders now looking towards $40 as the next stop-off point. In a typically selfish move by OPEC, Algeria has announced that it thinks that non-OPEC members should cut production to stem the crude glut on world markets – which would obviously suit them magnificently as they could then enjoy higher prices with no cut in production for them. As usual, there policy is completely see-through once again but these latest remarks are still having a negative effect on values.