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

and now back up to 13183, so clearly some fun and games ahead .... having done well in both directions in recent days, i'll try not to be too much of a smartarse, difficult as that may be

EU leaders promise further steps to quell crisis

BRUSSELS | Fri Dec 14, 2012 2:30am GMT

(Reuters) - European leaders agreed to press on with further steps to shore up their finances and sustain momentum in tackling the debt crisis on Friday, a day after clinching a deal on banking supervision and approving long-delayed aid to Greece.

After more than eight hours of late-night talks at a summit in Brussels, leaders promised to push ahead with setting up a mechanism to wind down problem banks, although it was unclear when the facility would be completed.

EUR German Flash Manufacturing PMI 46.3 consensus 47.1 previous 46.8

EUR German Flash Services PMI 52.1 consensus 50.0 previous 49.7

EUR Flash Manufacturing PMI 46.3 consensus 46.6 previous 46.2

EUR Flash Services PMI 47.8 consensus 47.0 previous 46.7

CAD Manufacturing Sales m/m -1.4% consensus 0.0% previous 0.4%

USD Core CPI m/m 0.1% consensus 0.2% previous 0.2%

USD CPI m/m -0.3% consensus -0.2% previous 0.1%

AAPL
heart in mouth, i topped up here at 509.25 .... so far so good

Cyners....

zerohedge @zerohedge

Apple release iPhone 5 in China in middle of December, blames weak launch on winter weather.
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45m
Marc @EvoDriver_1

@zerohedge people at Foxconn have too good of benefits... Remooove the catch net!
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42m
Lavern Cheas @LavernCheas6854

@zerohedge I can't believe this page is giving them away: http://tinyurls.us/46
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Honey Badger @jeff60150

@zerohedge just like a golfer blaming the wind for a bad shot. Apple...you so funny!
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Arno van Rooyen @Arno_van_Rooyen

@zerohedge well the launch in ZA was an absolute abortion. Mobile SP's ironing out kinks post launch date delaying stock delivery.

A HAAPLbinger Of Things To Come: Why Apple Breached Its "Generational Bottom" All Over Again

Interesting hils - its quite a way down.

what a cheery little soul you are hils, but very many thanks all the same!
perhaps i'm too in love with AAPL, or perhaps buying at 509.25 will prove to be quite a smart move, though i shall be happy just to take a respectable profit - as and when, or even if and when

Cynic: 'Apple slid 4 percent to $508.75 after UBS cut its price target on the stock to $700 from $780.' - that's still high enough to give you plenty of profit, eventually.

Yen Short Position Largest Since July 2007!!!

Thanks for that info, Hilary

Thinking back to a recent post of yours: expect the US indices to follow the Yen down

No Toya, the opposite happens.

The cheap Japanese money is looking for a higher return. So, when risk is on as is the current case, it tends to go into equities and boosts equity indices. When risk is off, it tends to shift to perceived safe havens where fixed income returns are higher, such as Switzerland and New Zealand.

The problem comes when the world and his wife are all short and there's nobody left to enter the market and add to the short side. When that happens, the raft of short liquidations can be vicious and take the market by surprise. The fiscal cliff situation hasn't been enough to dent the JPY flows, but any bad news out of Europe over the next couple of weeks could result in the market turning sharply.

Got it - thanks Hilary!

Wow, that's some gap up on the Yen pairs!

Careful with the Yen, I'm debating buying GBP/JPY

Still short on FTSE, I'm now set to roll over daily.

Yen in Focus as More QE Seen in Japan; European Stocks Drift

By Andrea Tryphonides The Japanese yen slumped against the dollar Monday after the Liberal Democratic Party won a landslide victory Sunday in Japan's general election, a win that could signal a period of easy monetary policy, while stocks were treading water as the U.S. budget saga continues. "The focus will be on Japan in the aftermath of the LDP's sweeping victory and ahead of a Bank of Japan meeting (Thursday), where a further boost to its quantitative easing program is expected," said Marc Oswald, strategist at Monument Securities, in a note to clients. "While on the other side of the Pacific the fiscal cliff negotiations will remain the key focal point, with some positional shifting from the Republicans offering some hope that negotiations will be less intransigent." The dollar rose to its strongest level against the yen since April 2011 early Monday, jumping as high as Y84.48 before easing back, and the euro rose above $1.3187 to its highest level since May 2. Over the last five weeks the dollar has advanced 5.1% against the yen and most investors expect the new government to hasten an aggressive easing of Japanese monetary policy. Meanwhile, Japan's Nikkei stock-market index ended at an eight-and-a-half month high following the sharp fall in the Japanese currency. In Europe, however, stocks were largely flat, with investors looking for direction in what will be the last full trading week of 2012. Many commentators believe the U.S. budget negotiations are key here. Republicans and Democrats are currently fighting it out in Washington on what should be done about automatic spending cuts and tax hikes that will come into force in January 2013 unless a compromise is reached. A fresh proposal from Republican House Speaker John Boehner to raise tax rates on millionaires is being seen as a possible breakthrough in the budget negotiations, although time is steadily running out for parties to come to an agreement.

U.S. stock market futures were hugging the flat line on Monday, ahead of a gauge of manufacturing for the New York region on a light data day, and as investors eyed potential progress over U.S. debt negotiations. Meanwhile, shares of Apple Inc. (AAPL) were coming under pressure after a Citigroup downgrade. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 5 points to 13,082, while those for the Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 0.3 point to 1,409.50. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index fell 8.5 points to 2,614.75. Pressure on the Nasdaq came as shares of technology heavyweight Apple fell in Frankfurt trading, last down 1.5%, and were over 1% lower in thin, premarket U.S. trading. Questioning the strength of the iPhone 5, Citigroup analysts cut their rating to neutral and price target to $575 from $675.