 Hello and welcome to CMC Markets and Tuesday the 14th of April and the weekly market update. And we're coming off the back of a series of record highs for the FTSE 100, FTSE 250, German DAX, multi-year highs for European equity markets as well as Asian markets as well. I think what's really stood out is the fact that finally the perennial underperformer, the FTSE 100, has finally gained the foothold above the 7000 level. So I'm going to be having a look at that and the prospects that we could well actually see further gains in the FTSE as long as we stay above 7000. I'm also going to have a look at the story about sterling weakness. We've heard an awful lot of stories and press about electoral uncertainty. Wayne on UK stock markets, Wayne on the pound in particular, and also have a look at the gilt market in that regard as well. Because I think if you're talking about electoral uncertainty on electrical, whatever you want to call it, electoral uncertainty, I think the first pressure point in terms of risk is likely to be the UK gilt market. We've heard stories about potential buyers striking UK gilts, certainly not being born out in the price action. So again, I'm going to have a look at the UK gilt market. Have a look at the pound and have a look at the FTSE 100. Let's make a start with the UK 100. And we're looking at a daily candlestick chart in front of you right now. And you can see that I've drawn a horizontal support resistance line through the previous peaks at 69.80. Now, we did initially break slightly above that in the middle of March. We weren't able to sustain those particular moves. We broke back down again, retested the 200-day moving average, and now have managed to regain a foothold above that 6980 level. And I think that really, for me, is the line in the sand. As long as we can sustain a move or sustain this move above the 7000 level, then I think it's increasingly likely that we could well see further gains, particularly in light of, rather perversely, that disappointing Chinese economic data that we saw earlier this week. And I think Chinese data in particular this week is going to be a big driver of the FTSE. The mining sector is going to be a key driver, simply because poor economic data is going to make it all the more likely that Chinese policymakers are going to push further stimulus into the Chinese economy. And that should be broadly supportive of basic resource stocks, like mining stocks, which over the past two or three years have struggled to really gain any sort of traction to the upside. So the key level on the FTSE 100, UK 100, remains around about 6980, 7000. As long as we stay above that, then we could well see further gains. So we're pretty much just about four weeks away from the general election, and thus far we're not really seeing any tensions in the guild market or in the pound. Yes, the pound is weak against the dollar, but I think there are rather underlying reasons behind that. If you look at the pound against the euro, if you look at the pound against the whole host of other currencies, it still remains fairly strong. But I think if you're looking for uncertainty and if you're looking for nervousness surrounding the UK economy and the current deadlock in the polls, the first place to look is the UK guild market. Now the chart we're looking at today is a daily candle chart for the UK guild, and we still remain in the long-term uptrend that we've been in for several months now, and we remain well above the long-term trend line. We did put the minor peak in in March. We have since drifted lower, but for the time being, we are currently trading sideways between these two converging trend lines, and until such times as we break below the uptrend line from the lows that I've drawn in on this chart here, the likelihood is we're probably not going to see that much in the way of tension in the guild market. Now, the nearer we get to the poll date, that could well change, but for now, UK guilds remain in an uptrend, and as such, UK guild yields continue to look fairly soft. So we've looked at the guild market, now let's have a quick look at the pound against the dollar. Now, we've seen a steady decline since we posted those 171.40 peaks in the middle of last summer, and we've declined virtually every single month by January in that time, which would seem to suggest that potentially we could be near a short-term base. Certainly we're near the bottom end of the recent range that we've been in over the last five years. The lowest point we posted over the last five years was in May 2010, and that was in the days following the last Hun Parliament election, and the days that it took to essentially cobble together the current coalition agreement. So, the fact that we're below 147 would seem to suggest that there's certainly potential for us to go lower, but I think in the context of what we've seen so far, the facts of the matter is the sterling weakness that we're seeing here against the dollar is pretty much confined to just the US dollar. And I think a lot of that is based on the fact that a lot of people think that we're probably going to see some form of move on interest rates by the US Federal Reserve. So, I'm a little bit torn in the context of this particular chart as to whether or not we might be near a near-term base. Certainly, given the range of the last five to ten years, we are at the bottom end of the range because the lowest point that we saw in the pound against the dollar were those lows that we saw post-financial crisis when we touched lows of 136, 137, and we never really closed below 140. So, we're at the bottom end of the range for the pound against the dollar over the last five years, so we need to be a little bit careful about the potential for a short squeeze. And I think that's probably better borne out on this next chart that I'm about to show you and the horizontal support and resistance line that I'm showing you here. That's round about 147.40. We can see from this daily candle chart we have broken below it, but what I would hope to see on a weekly basis is for us to close below it. The key resistance levels that I'm looking at with respect to the pound against the dollar at the moment are round about 147.40 on a daily basis and then 149.150. I think it's going to be very, very difficult for us to rally much beyond those key levels over the course of the next few weeks, simply because of the uncertainty ahead of next month's election. That being said, I think the downside is also likely to remain fairly limited as well. But for the downside, for the downside not to accelerate towards the lows that we saw in 2010, we need to push back beyond 147.50. Otherwise, as we head into the election, I think there's a good chance we could actually drift towards the lows that we saw in 2010. So that's pretty much it for this week, ladies and gentlemen. Just a quick reminder that on Thursday, Colin Ciesinski and myself will be hosting a our monthly webinar at 3pm on Thursday. You can sign up for that by basically clicking on the link that we're going to put down here. Otherwise, that's it for this week. Thanks very much for listening. This is Michael Houston talking to you from CMC Markets.