08:40am CET (07:40 UK time)   Going to be out for most of the day in Palma with friends but will be here in the study for an hour or so catching up on emails

Even though the markets yesterday were waiting for the release of last month’s Fed minutes, traders were slightly confused and not sure whether to buy or sell as although the general consensus was for an early rate rise with the majority of members were going for a June or September rise in the minimum lending rate – but the actual meeting was before last Friday’s disappointing U.S. jobs data so largely can be discounted and in the end things are broadly as before with the benchmark S&P 500 index is continuing its rise from the 2040 support level that’s been holding steady for the past month or so. Here in Europe, equity markets were slightly subdued yesterday as EU bigwigs issued Greece with an ultimatum to come forward with some concrete proposals in the next 6 days concerning their fiscal responsibilities and as yet the best that the Greeks cam manage is a promise to pay some of their outstanding interest commitments by tonight with no prospect of a firm resolution to the bigger problem.  The general optimism in the U.S. last night does however look to be spilling over to Europe this morning, so expect equities to be bullish for a while.

The Crude Oil market had the weekly U.S. stock figures out yesterday and against the consensus there was a rise in the amount of oil stored at Cushing by nearly 11 million barrels which is the highest weekly jump in 14 years and surprised traders to the extent that U.S. WTI Crude fell over 6% to $50.25 per barrel by the end of the session yesterday. The price does seem to be obeying the $54 resistance level that’s been in force since early February and with no great increase in global demand it is hard to see the price trading over the narrow corridor it’s been in during 2015.

Market Close Wednesday 8th April 2015:   Dow Jones 30  +27.09 @ 17,902.51  S&P 500  +5.57 @ 2,081.90  NASDAQ  +31.88 @ 4,375.96  FTSE 100 -24.36 @ 6,937.41  UK AIM  +3.17 @ 725.52  DAX 30 -87.66 @ 12,035.86  CAC 40 -14.33 @ 5,136.86  IBEX  -75.00 @ 11,655.50   Nikkei 225 (Today)  +149.29 @ 19,939.10  Hang Seng (currently)  +728.48 @ 26,965.34

All times below are CET (UK Time +1hr)

20:05pm     Been back a short while and just turned on my S&P 500 chart to look for some ‘Trade With A Day Job’ trades as I’ve a number of email questions about the strategy from some new traders who’ve just started trading it.

20:30pm    Did not have to wait too long — I’m now in a ‘long’ position with a 20 pip stop loss.

21:35pm    I came out of the trade 5 minutes ago with an 86 pip profit.