Well, we had the worst day since February for the world's stock markets yesterday,

today we've had one of the best.

Now we heard from the Fed late in the U.S. afternoon,

they published the minutes to their last meeting,

that really didn't change very much, rate expectations were almost unchanged afterwards.

The big driver came from the oil market.

Now if we take a look at the oil price over the last two years,

you can see obviously the dramatic decline that it suffered in 2014, it still hasn't been corrected

You can see in the last week or so, an incipient further decline, it dropped some 15% from the peak it reached last month.

Therefore, the rebound that it's had in the last couple of days

even though only just shows up on that chart has been enough to restore sentiment in the stock market quite considerably.

That largely comes from inventory data here,

in the States there is still a flood of oil available here in America,

but the latest numbers do show that the inventories have declined slightly,

that has been enough to put up prices and to reassure those watching in the stock market that the oil price is not going to go on another indefinite decline,

hence stock markets have recovered.

Now we also now know that the Fed is watching this very closely.

Perhaps, for me, the single most interesting line to come out of their minutes was their clarification that when they say they are data-dependent,

the data they depend on includes international and financial data that's affected the economic outlook.

And that includes both the oil price and as we come to now, the dollar.

Now as you can see, the dollar strengthened radically while the oil price was weakening.

And it will / has not escaped attention that it is now weakening once more today, it has dropped on a trade-weighted basis to its lowest level since last October,

as you can see it's roughly at the same level it's been for over a year now.

A weaker dollar helps U.S. companies, it flatters U.S. profits, and will generally boost the stock market as well,

it also alleviates pressure on emerging markets, countries whose currencies had come under pressure

and where there had been some concerns about a possible debt crisis.

Therefore if you do see oil rising and the dollar weakening as you have today,

that relieves everybody and so at least for today you get a good strong day on the stock market.