08:05am CET (07:05 UK time)  ~  I shall be here at home this morning catching up on emails and doing some chart watching and then at lunchtime I am off to Altea on the Spanish mainland to sort out a house sale.

The U.S. markets were in a good mood again yesterday, the Dow Jones 30 index hit another all-time high at 17924 before closing slightly down at 17912 and the S&P 500 had a similarly bullish session due mainly to positive jobs numbers and good earnings results. Early figures ahead of Friday’s Non Farm Payrolls numbers show that over 200,000 jobs were added in November. Asian markets were up overnight on this news plus further signs that China will continue its economic stimulus programme. We have Bank Of England and ECB rate announcements later this morning and no surprises are expected although traders would like to see President Draghi announce some more stimulus to lift the Eurozone out of impending recession.

There was a brief respite in the falling crude oil price yesterday as U.S. crude stocks showed inventories were lower than expected and it’s value was only down 20 cents by the end of the session at $67:41 and overnight it’s risen slightly to $68:00 as I write this.

Market Close Wednesday 3rd November 2014:   Dow Jones 30  +33.07 @ 17,912.62  S&P 500  +7.78 @ 2,074.33  NASDAQ  +6.97 @ 4,312.93  FTSE 100  -25.47 @ 6,716.63  UK AIM  +0.55 @ 711.50  DAX 30  +37.71 @ 9,971.79  CAC 40  +3.56 @ 4,391.86  IBEX  +126.70 @ 10,875.90   Nikkei 225 (Today)  +166.78 @ 17,887.21  Hang Seng (currently)  +329.08  @ 23,757.70

All times below are Central European Time (UK +1hr)

11:55pm  ~  Nothing to report regarding trading opportunities – going to close my charts off now and get ready to fly to Alicante.