Trading Diary & Market Update ~ Friday 2nd February 2018

08:55am  As it is Non Farms Payroll in the U.S. today I am staying away from the markets but I will be back in front of my charts on Monday morning.

Market Update:

European markets closed mainly in the red yesterday as trades digested worse than expected corporate results and a less than enthusiastic start to the U.S. trading session. Later on U.S. equity indices finished the day mixed with the Dow Jones 30 index closing 37 points higher at 26,186 even though it had been above the 26,300 level earlier in the session. The Nasdaq and S&P-500 indices eventually closed down even though the heavily weighted Facebook shares advanced to a record high after analysts predict stronger advertising growth. The S&P-500 is now showing signs of decline with the price falling towards the 2800 level which also coincides with the 20-day moving average.

The overnight Asian trading session closed mainly down after a subdued close in the U.S. with the Japanese Nikkei-225 resuming its slide downwards after a brief respite on Wednesday. Tech stocks had a hard time on Thursday and the South Korean Kospi Index fell as a result, Samsung Electronics contributed to a majority of the losses. The main Chinese index Shanghai Composite was a bright light in a sea of red and briefly ended a near week of declines to close up by 0.46%, energy stocks were buoyant but the financial sector took a tumble.

Oil markets were on the move up once again after a survey showed that there is strong compliance with the ongoing OPEC production cuts which Russia are also in agreement with. The UK Brent Crude futures were up by 77 cents on the day by last night to $69.63 and they did reach a high of $69.93 earlier this morning before falling back to the present $69.56 level.  Gold traders are adjusting their positions as always before the monthly U.S. jobs report and it has fallen $1.40 from its close at $1348.20 last night.   Better than expected job figures and lower unemployment normal signals a strong economy and this would normally strengthen the Dollar but put pressure gold so we could see further falls down to the 20-day moving average at $1333.00

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