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

Ho Hum - Obama formally orders "deeply destructive" cuts, blames Congress

WASHINGTON | Sat Mar 2, 2013 6:03am GMT

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama formally ordered broad cuts in U.S. government spending on Friday night after he and congressional Republicans failed to reach a deal to avert automatic reductions that could dampen economic growth and curb military readiness.

As the United States staggered into another fiscal crisis, the White House predicted that the spending cuts triggered by the inability of Obama and lawmakers to forge a broader deficit-reduction agreement would be "deeply destructive" to the nation's economic and national security.

UK heads for triple dip as factories slump, mortgage lending slides

LONDON | Fri Mar 1, 2013 5:53pm GMT

(Reuters) - The risk that Britain is entering its third recession in four years grew on Friday with figures showing that manufacturing shrank unexpectedly last month and mortgage approvals for home buyers dropped in January.

Gross domestic product fell at the end of last year, bringing Britain within sight of another recession and the latest data suggested the central bank may need to do yet more to revive the economy.

The pound sank to its lowest level against the dollar in more than 2-1/2 years, while prices of British government bonds - which the Bank of England could resume buying - rose after the releases.

The Markit/CIPS Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) fell to 47.9 from a downwardly revised 50.5 in January, confounding forecasts for a rise to 51.0. It was the first reading below the 50 line that separates growth from contraction since November.

Why no US non farm payroll numbers yesterday?

Stan - they are next week! :-)

Thanks Skinny, been busy again this week so not up to date much, Do you know why they are delayed 1 week at all?

They aren't delayed.

NFPs are released on the third Friday after the conclusion of the week which includes the 12th of the month. Most often this happens to be the first Friday of the new month, but not exclusively so.

glad i went short dow on friday, even if my timing for so doing was somewhat wonky .... reckon that will be about the only bit of cheer today

GBP Construction PMI 46.8 consensus 49.2 previous 48.7

EUR Sentix Investor Confidence -10.6 consensus -4.5 previous -3.9

EUR Spanish Services PMI 44.7 consensus 45.9 previous 47.0

EUR Italian Services PMI 43.6 consensus 43.6 previous 43.9

Short in @6398 - been tried twice this morning so far.

EUR Final Services PMI 47.9 consensus 47.3 previous 47.3

UK retail sales grew at fastest rate for years in February

UK retail sales grew at their fastest rate in more than three years in February, as the drier weather coaxed shoppers back out onto the High Street.

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said like-for-like retail sales were up 2.7% on the previous year.

That is the fastest rate of like-for-like sales growth since December 2009, the group said.

GBP Services PMI 51.8 consensus 51.1 previous 51.5

just bought back into HG+HC Index again (9574) as it was barely up today, whereas C+M is zipping away (already in) ..... it's always a bit of a scary call as that index is very volatile indeed, but i always play both of those indices with a sensible stop in case i get it all wrong

Are we running on Premium BS?

the markets in general? .... not exactly; bonds are singularly less than exciting, and there is a huge wall of money (to use today's sexy phrase) that needs to be invested somewhere .... once there is momentum, it becomes almost self-fulfilling - until everyone says buy; and then it's time to sell :-)

Not the market is taking any notice of anything today :-

USD ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI 56.0 consensus 55.0 previous 55.2

cynic,

Sometimes forget it is about shifting money in a return chase.

Cheers,
KidA

is that the polite version of saying greed rules until fear sets in?

shorters getting burnt today.