The DOW Jones Industrial Average didn’t quite make it to 22000 today (01/08/17) and closes at: 21966 This is the fifth day straight that the DOW makes new records – will it be 22000 and six days of consecutive records tomorrow? The NASDAQ and the S&P 500 also finished higher.

Sterling is trading up against the dollar today at $1.32 – the highest level since September helped by good manufacturing figures for July.

Electric Trucks, Vans & Cars. Maybe it has been a reluctant move for car manufacturers to adopt electric vehicles into their mainstream production plans. After all, electric vehicles have been around for sometime and not really that much has happened through the years. But it is now gathering general interest …

BP PLC share price is up 3.2% at £4.60 as on 01/08/17 at: 11.25am after good results issued today – better than analysts expected.

Rolls Royce Group PLC reported positive earnings with pre-tax profits up. Its share price was up by 9.2% at £9.69 on (01/08/17 at: 11:00). Good news and something for investors to be happy about.

On Thursday 3rd August 2017 the Bank of England (BOE) is due to announce the rate decision. PMI figures for the service sector are also due. Three sets of data are due out on Thursday (03/08/17) – interest rate decision from the Bank of England (BOE), the quarterly inflation report …

Latest survey data of purchasing managers out today (01/08/17) from IHS Market/CIPS show its index rose from 54.2 in June to 55.1 in July. PMI data for the service sector due on Thursday 3rd August 2017

Centrica PLC – British Gas to you and me, have announced price increases of around 12.5% – Apparently this increase is based on ‘lower’ wholesale energy costs, higher distribution costs and government policy? ‘Lower wholesale’ costs – and prices still go up? Is that right? If you check back through …

The NIKKEI index closed just short of 20000 & the Hand Seng reached a two year high following the DOW up! Australia keeps interest rate at 1.5%