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

Lol Hilary - I'm picturing the night shift literally!

U.S. borrowing bill gets final passage without familiar drama

WASHINGTON | Fri Feb 1, 2013 5:47am GMT

(Reuters) - Completing a major Republican retreat from another messy showdown with President Barack Obama, the U.S. Senate on Thursday passed legislation to allow the government to keep borrowing money at least through May 19.

The measure has already passed the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives and its next stop is Obama, who is expected to sign it into law.

gone short again at 6308 with tight sl at 6320

moved my sl down to 6305

oops - too close again - but small profit

one last go @6304 - no sl

Any view on non farm payroll - will hurricane Sandy effect these figures

bhunt - you have our PMI @9.30 1st.

Thanks - forgot that

GBP Manufacturing PMI 50.8 consensus 51.0 previous 51.4

Thanks Skinny for the UK figures.

Bhunt: below is a link to an article re US Non-Farm Payrolls:

US Job Growth in January more of same

Numbers expected are around 160,00 – 170,000 vs previous month of 155,00

FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) -- Activity in the 17-nation euro zone's manufacturing sector continued to shrink in January, but contracted at the slowest pace in 11 months, according to Markit's final January purchasing-managers' index for the sector released Friday. The index rose to 47.9 from 46.1 in December, coming in above an earlier estimate of 47.5. A reading of less than 50 signals shrinking activity. Germany, Europe's largest economy, saw its manufacturing PMI rise to 49.8, an 11-month high, while France sank to a four-month low at 42.9. Spain notched a 19-month high at 46.1. "While the industrial sector looks likely to have acted as a drag on the euro-zone economy in the final quarter of last year, deepening the double-dip downturn, the PMI provides hope that the first quarter could mark the start of a turnaround," said Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit.

Thanks Toya = appreciated, Had better set a sl in case they like the news then

If it's as high as 200,000 then we'll definitely see some upward movement

Looks like the FTSE isn't done yet as it bounces around the 6300 level.
Stuck here sitting on my hands as I really want to short it but my brain says not yet.
It's a waiting game.... But I could be waiting a while.

I hope this doesn't encourage them at Twickers tomorrow!!!

Scottish economy out of recession after third-quarter growth of 0.6%

The Scottish economy moved out of recession between July and September, growing by 0.6%, according to official figures.

On an annual basis, Scottish Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew 0.4%.

The Scottish government said output in the services industries grew by 0.3%, but output in construction contracted by 0.4% during 2012's third quarter.

During the same period, the whole UK economy grew by 0.9%, helped by spending on the Olympics.

USD Non-Farm Employment Change 157K consensus 161K previous 155K

USD Unemployment Rate 7.9% consensus 7.8% previous 7.8%

USD Average Hourly Earnings m/m 0.2% consensus 0.2% previous 0.3%

I completely fail to see how the market can react so euphorically!

The averages have been revised up.

Toya - Yazz or so it seems!

Ah right, here's the explanation:

The U.S. created a modest 157,000 jobs in January and the unemployment rate ticked up to 7.9%, but the economy added one-third of a million more jobs in 2012 than previously estimated, with a large chunk coming in the final months of the year.