It has been a mixed picture for the hedge fund industry in 2014 with Macro funds struggling in particular.

After all the geo-political worries of a couple of weeks ago regarding the Ukraine and Iraq, shares are back on the up yet again.

What a difference a few weeks makes in the markets! In late July the US indices were hitting all time highs, now it looks like the Dow Jones Industrials are in danger of slipping back below 16,000 after a couple of weeks of heavy losses

After a poor few sessions last week, with a brief respite to the selling yesterday, most of the major indices are moving back down today or are just about holding their own.

The key US non-farm payroll data for July is out early this afternoon with expectations that the American economy added 235,000 jobs in the month and the unemployment rate at 6.1% and there’s a few nervous investors out there as the markets await the figures.

Global mining companies responded positively this morning to the news that China’s economy grew by 7.5% in the second quarter of 2014, in line with the full year forecast given by the Chinese government and ahead of the first quarter and consensus estimates of a 7.4% growth.

After rallying in the last couple of months from around the $1240 a troy ounce level in early June, gold has been under pressure this week, dropping over $30 or 2.3% on Monday as speculators took the yellow metal off the table in the face of fears about the demand for physical gold in Asian markets and whether central banks will continue buying after adding around 180 tonnes in the period between January and May.

After the financial turmoil of 2008 and 2009 investors seem to have a short memory when it comes to the financial institutions in the so called PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain) countries. Today the calm has been broken. The markets fell heavily today as one of Portugal’s biggest banks came a cropper with shares in Banco Espírito Santo (BES) dropping heavily…

After weeks of relying on economic data and the words of the world’s central banks to give an idea of the likely direction of the financial markets the focus is now switching to US corporate profitability with the beginning of the second quarter earnings season.

The Dow Jones Industrials are up 80 points to 17,056 and the S&P 500 is adding 8 points to 1,983 – new all time records for the US market and meaning that the Dow has crossed the 17,000 mark for the first time ever.