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

Harry,

What I've been saying for weeks is that there are big currency wars going on. Shinzo's free money has been coming to the UK. You've evidenced a big rise in the FTSE since last summer, despite the fact that a ratings downgrade has been on the cards all that time. In other words, the market has been looking far deeper than a mere ratings downgrade and, as bitter pill as it is to swallow for many, the market believes that Osborne's economic policies are the best.

I did qualify my earlier post by saying in point 5 that "None of the above is likely to prevent a knee-jerk reaction early next week".

As for China, it's possible of course that they might not crash. For that to happen, the west would need to resume imports again pdq. Or China would need to go 'self-sufficient' and start using its own output rather than relying on cheap exports to inflate their economy. Seeing as the infrastructure work which has been done in the country over the last decade has focused primarily on developing major cities and, as a country, they are deeply divided with a mobile labour force and an oppressive administration, I find it difficult to see how that scenario can happen.

hils - i agree that one should trust the chinese and their gov't even less than others (hard to do, admittedly!) ..... even so, while accepting that most chinese companies are controlled and manipulated by the gov't, they don't go on a shopping spree for base chemicals and commodities just for a laugh

for ourselves, we have seen a significant increase in biz out of saudi, primarily in petro-chem and derivatives ..... i confess i don't know where it all ends up, but as much of it is fairly low value, my guess is india

the other growth area is in oilfield and petro-chem plant development in west africa and the interest in LNG (the genuinely clean alternative to fossil fuels) is now growing apace ..... that creates its own new industry

all in all, lots of strange little things all starting to go in the right direction, and of course usa employment and its housing market are also slowly coming back to life

aide memoire for monday morning
at time of writing ....
cash dow - 13995 = -7 from close
cash ftse - 6355 = +19 from close

HG+HC index taken a big tumble this morning not least because its cousin C+M has limped north .... not sure why unless a lot of companies within HG+HC have gone ex div ....

any idea skinny?

Look at RB. - glad I sold 75% :-)

why the big hit there, not that i hold any?
also glad i hold C+M and not HG+HC!

The Yanks doing their normal thing to foreign companies.

GBP BBA Mortgage Approvals 32.3K consensus 34.2K previous 33.6K

I think their strategy is less effective these days. They should follow the crowd IMO.
I meant the Yanks.

Morning all

I've had a small short @6,380 - its been trying all morning to go higher. Resistance was @6,380.57.

And out for now @65.

Dreamliner: Japan's ANA cancels more Boeing 787 flights

Japan's All Nippon Airways (ANA) has said it will cancel all Boeing 787 flights until at least the end of May, in the latest blow to Boeing.

International regulators grounded all 787 Dreamliners in January so that safety checks could be carried out on their lithium ion batteries.

ANA is cancelling more than 1,700 flights in April and May, a period that includes Japan's Golden Week holiday.

It takes the total number of affected ANA Dreamliner flights to 3,600.

ANA is Boeing's biggest Dreamliner customer, with 17 of the world's 50 operational 787s.

HG+HC index
i reckon the fall is overdone, primarily reflecting a slump in RB sp (see that thread for reason), so have had a dabble at 9291

Moody's UK rating downgrade
we can comfortably ignore (fos)fred's garbage on this issue on the "NOWT" thread .....
USA was similarly downgraded in 2011, but this has long been forgotten by both the stock markets and the currency players
while £ has taken a battering against € - currently 1.14 against 1.25 2/3 months back - i shall watch with interest this ROE not only over the next 6-12 months, but also what happens after say the next general election in 2015

Dow
only last week (thursday), dow was languishing at around 13850, but in a sudden turnaround, current cash indicates 14050 ..... will this signal the (quite) long-awaited surge-and-hold through 14,000? - there have been a few recent attempts and failures at this level

18,850? you might want to revise that!

Hope this helps! ;o)

happy now :-) ?

Happier :-)