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Manufacturing – manufacturing activity in the UK expanded at a slower rate in August with weaker exports cooling growth.
Service Sector – UK service sector growth slowed in August, reinforcing expectations that the Bank of England will leave the interest rate at 4.75% when the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee meets this week..

FTSE meeting strong resistance at 5990 level and coming off ahead of the MPC meeting. Despite meeting horizontal resistance at the 5990 level, the FTSE100 is still making higher lows, suggesting there is further upside potential (ascending triangle formation.  When the market tumbles like this,  rather than tighten your stops (a bad strategy, either sell [...]

Productivity – Fed Reserve Chairman Bernanke said strong growth in US productivity will probably go on for some time as companies and industries make better use of computers to raise workers per hour output.
Unemployment – US employers added 128,000 jobs in August, a sign that whilst the economy is still growing, the rate of growth [...]

FTSE100 called flat to 4 pts down before the open. DAX called down, CAC up a little.  Volumes light. We need to see some volume in the market to support our long stance, given we are in September this should be imminent. Dull and boring I’m afraid – if we see some movement we’ll let [...]

Oil and Mining Stocks

Oil and mining stocks make up 23% of FTSE 100 and 4% of FTSE 250 by market capitalisation.
Oil has formed a double top and found resistance at $70

Oil and Gas Sector

Head and shoulders – reversal pattern

Mining

Weak uptrend – support from 50ema.

Other sectors of interest

Aerospace and defence – triple bottom, above moving [...]

TRADE OF THE WEEK – sponsored by LiveTradingFloor

Astra Zeneca PLC (AZN)
Technical Play: Consolidation Breakout – Long
Entry Price: 3355.00
Initial Stop Loss: 3339.00
Target: 3500.00
Strategy
Break of a consolidation as well as break to 52 week high. (8.43 30/8) Adding to position £5pp now we have cleared risk zone. (8.45 30/8) Move Stop to Breakeven at 3374
Performance
This stock [...]

Retail sales – Sales for August grew at fastest rate for 18 months
Consumer Confidence – Consumer confidence survey for August due out tomorrow.
Inflation – Inflation (2.4%) remains above target (2.0%) due to higher prices for oil and food and higher university fees.
Interest rates – Next interest rate decision due on September 7th – [...]