rather than pick out individual stocks to trade, it can often be worthwhile to trade the indices themselves, especially in times of high volatility.

for those so inclined, i attach below charts for FTSE and FTSE 250, though one might equally be tempted to trade Dow or S&P, which is significantly broader in its coverage, or even NASDAQ

for ease of reading, i have attached 1 year and 3 month charts in each instance

Cynic - ironically Hargreaves Lansdown have a just sent me a Household Goods & Home Construction sector overview - which may be of interest to you. I'll try and have a read later.

sounds of interest for sure
also interesting that the lurch on wall street seems to have been very short-lived, whereas just a week ago, the market would have continued sharply south .... such is sentiment

Yet another loss on Wall St tonight...!! Horrible trading at the moment day to day.

India’s GDP growth declines to 5.3% in July-Sept quarter

New Delhi: The Indian economy grew by 5.3 percent in the July-September period of the current financial year (2012-13), pulled down by poor performance of manufacturing and agriculture sectors, showing persistent signs of slowdown.

The gross domestic product (GDP) had expanded by 6.7 percent in the same period of last fiscal.

It had grown by 5.5 percent in the first quarter (April-June) of 2012-13.

Well I'm glad I stayed out of it yesterday, while not at my screen - having read all your comments! I would surely have lost money on the DOW. Can't watch much of today either, but am tempted just to set a short FTSE from 5900

for sure there will be bad days, but the trend now looks to have reversed from its previous gloom

Further to that Indian report, I did hear that their traditional Gold buying is down this year because of currency issues in India.

Re DOW:
I reckon we should see a strong upward trend when the US Fiscal Cliff is resolved.

However: I keep reading about the UK banks and their 'black holes' - and that would hold back growth in this country. Hence, we could see the DOW pulling away and leaving the FTSE behind.

and of course resolved it will be, though it is equally certain that there'll be some tough inside fighting in the meantime

with regard to ftse, it would be worth checking the composition of the components .... memory tells me that it is very top-heavy with mining and resource stocks

Guys,

Seriously, I think you're worrying too much about the fiscal cliff. The market is looking upon it as large-scale game of brinkmanship.

It's Europe that the market is focussing on atm. And don't forget it's month end today.

More Draghi: Sees relative stabilisation of market conditions
Speaking at conference in Paris
ECB’s OMT plan addresses tail risks
Some banks in stressed countries regained mkt access

Lagarde: Correction of euro zone’s imbalances is far from over
Govts should give more weight to structural deficit targets than nominal deficits
Pace of fiscal consolidation in Europe should remain reasonable so as not to affect growth (and for my next trick)

More Schaeuble: Failure to pass Greek aid would hit EU, beyond
Greek economic transformation like ex-east bloc
Greece is increasing its competitiveness
More Greek wage flexibility is helping economy
Can’t blame Greece’s woes on reform adjustments
Bond buyback will shrink debt load significantly
Greece only gets aid if it continues reforms
Additional measures may be EU development aid
Other future Greek measure could be interest cut
Speculation of a debt cut would fuel instability
A Greek default could lead to total euro breakup
Goal is that Greece can one day pay its own debt
Greece can only be helped on step-by-step basis
Nobody profits more from EU than Germany

IMF’s Lagarde: European economy is fragile
Hopes ECB bond purchases can be activated in the near term
Financial markets still fragmented
Strong recession in the Eurozone periphery is hurting the core
ESM and OMT should help prevent contagion
Banking union is a priority in IMF’s opinion, followed by greater budgetary coordination
Favours ECB taking banking supervisory role

Schaeuble: First successes seen in Greece rescue
Still a long way to go for Greece
Greece crisis can’t be resolved in a ‘few years’
Greece govt is making big effort for reforms

Swiss November KOF falls to 1.50
Lowest reading for 4 months

Spanish November Flash CPI 2.9% y/y

Cynic: yes, that's a good point.

Hilary: agree, loads of factors out there, but in the immediate term (as in day-to-day trading) the markets, including European, are showing knee-jerk reactions any time a US politician mentions the fiscal cliff - just something to bear in mind for short-term trading

Hils - as ever :-)

EUR CPI Flash Estimate y/y 2.2% consensus 2.4% previous 2.5%

EUR Unemployment Rate 11.7% consensus 11.7% previous 11.6%

EUR Italian Prelim CPI m/m -0.2% consensus 0.0% previous 0.0%

Toya,

CBO says US has debt limit room until at least mid-Feb. So that's when the fiscal cliff solution will come. There were other things moving the market yesterday. Boehner's boner only had minimal effect.

are "we" too focused on europe and how its travails will affect the markets? ...... the european economies have been dire for the last 2/3 years ..... however, as i post regularly, economies in usa and far east are most assuredly picking up, and even india, which has certainly gone through some tough times of late (very weak rupee), is still forecasting growth of 5.3%

CAD GDP m/m 0.0% consensus 0.1% previous -0.1%

USD Core PCE Price Index m/m 0.1% consensus 0.2% previous 0.1%

USD Personal Spending m/m -0.2% consensus 0.1% previous 0.8%

USD Personal Income m/m 0.0% consensus 0.2% previous 0.4%

Thanks for for the pix Skinny!

it's a bit of "whore's drawers" today, but it being friday, it's not too surprising with so much mixed data and info floating about

so whats the prognosis for next week then boys and girls.,.
edit: I'll copy and paste it back at the end of the week and see who's savvy if more than one put in their penny worth.,.