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

15 Min Wall St

Worse-than-expected U.S. services-sector data and jobs figures dragged European stocks lower on Wednesday, with caution also displayed ahead of the European Central Bank's policy meeting. The Stoxx Europe 600 index shaved off 0.9% to close at 294.80, partly erasing a 1.3% jump from Tuesday. Last week, the index closed out March with a 10th consecutive monthly gain, boosted by aggressive easing measures from central banks and hopes of a pick up in the global economic recovery. But with the euro zone showing no signs of growth, there may not be scope for much further upside, according to Guy Foster, head of portfolio strategy at Brewin Dolphin. "We are neutral on euro-zone equities. Valuations look reasonable and things like the interest environment is slowly improving. Nevertheless, there is not much excitement regarding the top line," he said. "We're looking for any signs of stabilization or improvement in the economic numbers. There has been a fairly steady flow of disappointing numbers and it's not immediately apparent what will buck that trend," he added. U.S. data The broader stock markets were sent lower in afternoon action, after the Institute for Supply Management said its U.S. services index fell to 54.4% in March from a 12-month high of 56% in February. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected the index to dip to 55.8%. Additionally, Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP) said U.S. private-sector employment expanded by 158,000 jobs in March, well below expectations of a 215,000 gain. Markets look to ADP's report on private-sector payrolls to provide some guidance on the closely watched U.S. jobs report on Friday. U.S. stocks were lower. "I wouldn't worry too much about the ADP report. The revisions were pretty positive and the 200,000 added-jobs runrate remains intact. For the time being we are pretty comfortable with the U.S. employment numbers," Foster said. "I think the headline unemployment rate will demand a bit of attention on Friday," he added. "If the number of discouraged workers change, it could mean unemployment would come down quite fast. It would change the perspective for the Fed and could create headwinds for the equity market." Investors also awaited policy decisions from both the European Central Bank and Bank of England due on Thursday. Both banks are widely expected to keep rates on hold, although recent weak data raised expectations the ECB could act to boost the economy. "We expect the [ECB] governing council to discuss rate cuts, as the recession has deepened across the euro area. We estimate the likelihood of a rate cut is 25%," analysts at Danske Bank wrote in a note. "The main reason for the ECB to hold rates unchanged is that it continues to expect the economy to improve in the medium term. In addition, the monetary transmission mechanism remains broken so that the real economy would not benefit fully from a rate cut," they added. Cyprus got a slice of the limelight, as lawmakers and the International Monetary Fund finalized an agreement that will see the IMF contribute one billion euros ($1.28 billion) to the country's bailout in addition to EUR9 billion from euro-zone institutions. Movers Among notable movers, shares of Delhaize Group posted some of the biggest losses in the index, down 4.9%, after HSBC cut the supermarket operator to underweight from neutral. Telecom firms were also in the downgrading spotlight, with Telecom Italia SpA off 5.4% after UBS cut the firm to sell from buy, while France Télécom lost 4.4% after the bank slashed the rating to sell from neutral. In the U.K., the FTSE 100 index lost 1.1% to 6,420.28. Shares of Vodafone Group PLC (VOD) dropped 3.1%, after rising to its highest level in more than five years on Tuesday on reports Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) and AT&T Inc. (T) were putting together a takeover bid. Verizon said late Tuesday it has no plans to merge with or make an offer for the U.K. telecom firm, although stating it remains interested in buying Vodafone's 45% stake in Verizon Wireless. Mining firms also dropped in the U.K., after UBS downgraded the materials sector to neutral from overweight. Shares of heavyweights BHP Billiton PLC (BHP) and Rio Tinto PLC (RIO) both dropped 2%. Metals prices were also lower across the board. Germany's DAX 30 index closed 0.9% lower at 7,874.75, while France's CAC 40 index lost 1.3% to 3,754.96. Shares of AXA SA dropped 1.9% in Paris as HSBC Holdings PLC (HBC) said it agreed to sell its Singapore insurance business to the French insurer. HSBC fell 1.4%. Outside the major indexes, shares of SBM Offshore NV fell 2.8%, after the oil-services firm said it may have violated anticorruption laws and could face penalties and criminal prosecution.

Shortie,

During the entire fourth quarter of 2012 only 38 houses were repossessed by court order in Ireland. At that rate, it would take more than 620 years to get through the backlog of nearly 95,000 mortgage accounts that are at least 90 days behind on payments. It's little wonder that Irish families are prioritising unsecured loans loans costing most to service ahead of their mortgages.

If the troika stops lending and the Irish banks don't/won't/can't repossess, then I'd say there's a train wreck ahead. Similarly, if the banks do start to repossess and are forced into crystallising the inevitable losses onto their balance sheets, then there's also a train wreck ahead. As I said earlier, the banks are in a Catch 22.

"Greece has a role model and the role model is Ireland," Jean-Claude Trichet, former chief of the European Central Bank, famously said back in March 2010

FTSE 4 HR, note the MACD cross, I think we'll see the 6372 support line tested tomorrow.

Decided to let my short run - limit still in from yesterday @6,375 - put in at the time more out of hope than expectation.

Bank of Japan Boosts Bond Purchases at Kuroda’s First Meeting

Bank of Japan (8301) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda began his campaign to end 15 years of deflation with a strengthened stimulus program that will see the central bank buy 7 trillion yen ($746 billion) of bonds a month.

With Kuroda presiding over his first BOJ meeting since taking the helm last month, the board today streamlined its asset purchases by unifying separate programs, temporaily suspending a self-imposed cap on some bond holdings and pledging to buy longer-term debt.



BOJ scraps overnight call rate, sets base money as new target

TOKYO | Thu Apr 4, 2013 6:09am BST

(Reuters) - The Bank of Japan decided on a radical overhaul of its policy framework on Thursday, shifting its target when setting monetary policy to base money from the current overnight call rate.

The central bank said it will double its holdings of long-term government bonds and exchange-traded funds while buying government bonds with all maturities, including 40-year bonds.

"The BOJ will conduct money-market operations so that the monetary base will increase at an annual pace of about 60 to 70 trillion yen (£498.9 billion) )," the BOJ said in a statement.

Quite a range (unsurprisingly).

6% rise in two days for the index. That's great.

Mmm - got my calls badly wrong last night - stopped out on both - hey ho

Nikkei was below 11900 on 2nd April, now 12630 (+6% in two days).

EUR Italian Services PMI 45.5 43.4 43.6

EUR Final Services PMI 46.4 46.5 46.5

GBP Services PMI 52.4 51.4 51.8

EUR Spanish 10-y Bond Auction 4.48|2.1 previous 4.90|1.9

EUR PPI m/m 0.2% 0.2% 0.4%

EUR French 10-y Bond Auction 1.94|3.1 previous 2.10|2.2

Sterling Steady After BOE MPC Leaves Rates, QE Unchanged

I've been limited out @6,375 +98.7.

Looks like that may be too early.

i am told that the downside target for ftse is 6125 though you may want to trade it in the meantime

for myself, i'm not sure what to do with this now very juice ftse short - e.g. AFR has taken a clattering this morning for now known reason ... i have a number of options, all of which have their merits

i can't work out whether the fall is primarily due to some last minute profit-taking for y/e or something more radical ..... in the meantime, dow is very whore's drawers but should be on a decent downward trend

followed the discipline - banked a very juice profit on ftse, in part because i'll be travelling tomorrow

cynic oil price falling warm weather coming!

AFR fall too big for that annual anomaly, but assuredly some big profits been made over the last 12 months

There must be a N Korean element in the markets to a certain degree, I'd have thought.

skin don't worry the"fat boy" will back down, otherwise he is in for a spanking!