Craig Erlam

The less than promising reports coming from China on the trade war may have taken some of the energy out of the rally, we're certainly seeing less momentum in the recent rallies.

Doubts are not yet turning into full-blown concerns, if a date isn't set in stone soon though, that may come.

Prices remain under pressure, oil inventory today from API may be notable albeit unlikely to have any major impact on the broader trend.

It is an early acknowledgment of the difficulties that customers are expected to make in the aftermath of Brexit — particularly in a no deal scenario — and that number could rise.

With Trump picking fights on multiple fronts and no sides showing any willingness to back down, we may have to get used to this risk-averse environment in the near-term.

Brexit has made a (U.S.) rate hike in the near term extremely unlikely, with policy makers at the Federal Reserve wanting to see what the impact of this will be, both domestically and on financial markets, markets seem convinced that another rate hike this year is off the table.

Strong gains in oil provides a timely boost to what has been a rather gloomy week, but I'm not convinced at this stage that this is anything more than a dead cat bounce.

This is a response to the late sell-off in China, it was reminiscent of the kind of heavy selling that we saw back in August when emerging market concerns were very high, which in turn weighed on sentiment in Europe.

Greece may be easing us into the quieter summer months, however there is still plenty to focus on in the markets, with commodities grabbing plenty of attention, meanwhile, earnings season is also well underway and could prove key in determining whether we will see rate hikes this year and companies attempt to weather the strong dollar storm.

In the last 48 hours we've seen record low yields on euro zone debt, falling yields on U.S. debt despite the first rate hike being just around the corner, a collapse in the euro driving the rally in the dollar, which in turn has brought weakness in commodities that yesterday led to a big sell off in stock indices, under the circumstances, it's hard to argue that the ECB's programme isn't causing waves in the markets.

Oil prices really are a big market driver at the moment, whether it be for good for consumer spending or bad for energy companies.

A move below $ 20,000 would be a massive psychological blow and could send bitcoin further into a tailspin.

I think retail traders are here to stay, never before has it been so easy to trade financial markets... Some will be put off, naturally, but I think there'll be plenty who won't. These are very interesting times in the markets, after all.

Inflation and central banks’ response to it remain front and centre in investors’ minds and while the situation has not improved in recent weeks, there has been a clear upturn in sentiment.

The retail frenzy that provided an unusual distraction over the last couple of weeks appears to have lost momentum, a comeback tour may be planned at some point in the not-too-distant future but whether it will be as effective, we’ll have to wait and see.

I’m a bit of a cynic when it comes to bitcoin projections, i think it’s just a selection of people clutching at straws, trying to justify any reasons to be bullish.

Tensions between the U.S. and Iran appear to have eased almost as quickly as they escalated, brent is trading back around $65 and is looking pretty stable at this point. Barring any further escalation in the Middle East, we could see oil prices stabilize around these levels in the near term.

Christmas has definitely arrived early for oil producers, brent could get closer to $70 before the rally starts to run on fumes.