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

EUR CPI Flash Estimate y/y 1.8% consensus 2.0% previous 2.0%

EUR Unemployment Rate 11.9% consensus 11.8% previous 11.8%

EUR Italian Prelim CPI m/m 0.1% consensus 0.3% previous 0.2%

Not a good day for me yesterday - held gold long too long.

How much further could it drop

What is best site to observe commentary on gold traders ?

I don't trade commodities myself, but the two sites I have looked at and I keep for research are :

http://www.fastmarkets.com/thebulliondesk

http://www.goldbarsworldwide.com/

Both of them have a 'links' page which may be more useful than the website itself.

looks to me that dow could be in for a pasting today with 14,000 looking to fail once more as the bickering buffoons (aka posturing politicos) square up once more over the budget

FTSE support @6,306 being tested.

CAD GDP m/m -0.2% consensus -0.2% previous 0.3%

USD Core PCE Price Index m/m 0.1% consensus 0.1% previous 0.0%

USD Personal Spending m/m 0.2% consensus 0.2% previous 0.2%

USD Personal Income m/m -3.6% consensus -2.3% previous 2.6%

FX CHAT: US consumers lift spending amid income volatility

The monthly changes may look wild, but that's because of tax planning. Today's consumer report doesn't change outlook for steady but lackluster consumer spending in first half. Personal income plunges 3.6% in January, but that follows a 2.6% jump in December as dividends and bonuses were paid out early before higher tax rates kicked in. Consumers ignored the swing and lifted spending by 0.2%, a bit better than 0.1% gain in December.

USD Final Manufacturing PMI 54.3 consensus 55.2 previous 55.2

.
Wrong thread.

USD Revised UoM Consumer Sentiment 77.6 consensus 76.3 previous 76.3

USD Revised UoM Inflation Expectations 3.3% previous 3.3%

USD ISM Manufacturing PMI 54.2 consensus 52.7 previous 53.1

USD Construction Spending m/m -2.1% consensus 0.6% previous 0.9%

USD ISM Manufacturing Prices 61.5 consensus 57.3 previous 56.5

FTSE is bouncing around today!
Took my short off the table this morning faaaar toooooo soon but +18 points is better than nothing. Will have to wait and see how things pan out now for the next entry point.
TT

Amazingly the support as of this morning was 6,306.86 - low so far is 6,308.56 and no I didn't!

FTSE 6388 lets go short...

I've got a limit @6,398.

FTSE 15 Minute Chart

Think it'll close below 6360

Well that looks compelling!

Thought Non-farm Payrolls were out today, have I missed something?

Apparently! :-)