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

CAD Manufacturing Sales m/m -0.2% consensus 0.7% previous -3.1%

CAD Wholesale Sales m/m 0.3% consensus 0.4% previous -0.9%

USD Building Permits 0.95M consensus 0.93M previous 0.90M

USD Housing Starts 0.92m consensus 0.92M previous 0.89M

February home construction rises modestly

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Construction on new U.S. homes nudged up in February with modest gains for single-family residences and apartments, as longer-term trends signaled a housing market that continues to strengthen, according to data released Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Tuesday’s report also showed substantial gains in building permits, which indicate future demand.

Construction on new U.S. homes rose 0.8% in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 917,000, the highest level since December. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected construction starts in February to rise to a rate of 913,000 from an original January estimate of 890,000. On Tuesday the government upwardly revised January’s starts rate to 910,000. See economic calendar.

Starts for single-family homes rose 0.5% in February to a rate of 618,000, the highest level since June 2008. Meanwhile, starts for structures with at least five units increased 0.7% to a rate of 285,000, the highest level since December.

Might be a good'ish afternoon. DOW +50 start.

Harry - don't forget the DOW is open @1:30pm atm.

he he he ha ha ha...ohhhhh dear Harry. Slipping old lad, slipping.

It looks like the Cypriot vote is scheduled @4pm out time, but may be delayed again.

Cyprus considers zero tax on smaller bank deposits

Ah, looked at Bloomberg futures page and forgot time difference. Duh!
Feelgood factor didn't last long though for the DOW.

We all do it Harry dont worry bud

Just funny when you see it happen.

My warped sense of humour.

Glad its not as bad as cynics though.

Cynic reckon you havent gone far enough here.

Surely it should be trade the FTSE 350.

i've never followed FTSE 350 at all .... for that matter, i don't even trade FTSE 250 as it's far too scary

meanwhile, today is very odd indeed, - and indeed not very nice either as far as i ma concerned, even though it's quite warm and sunny here

btw, i don't have a warped sense of humour - i'm warped through and through!

true true

crazy day ...... this morning, i banked my profit in HG+HC and thought i had been too hasty, but it hs suddenly dropped sharply ..... my Dow short was beginning to look a bit sickly, but fortunately i stayed with it, and it is now handsomely in the money (again)

Shortie - 19 Mar 2013 10:12 - 11445 of 11460


Nice trade...

German PPI m/m -0.1% consensus 0.2% previous 0.8%

Fly me to the moon.

EUR Current Account 14.8B consensus 7.9B previous 13.9B

That dates you bit skinny! Mid 1950's I think. Frank from the brat pack ;o)

My Dad was a big Sinatra fan, so we couldn't escape it as youngsters.

i'm obviously missing something other than the obvious 2 screws .....

HG+HC is roaring ahead yet again, while C+M is merely limping north .... however, i would have thought that any budget stimulus would be more relevant to the latter