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

Over 200 pips on Wall St I made, wasn't prepared to lose it.. I'll have ichy fingers now waiting for higher ground to short off...

Daily FTSE - Breakout lower looking imminent.

Stocks extend losses on jobs data --DJIA down 150; was down 80 points before --S&P sheds 18 By Tomi Kilgore and Alexandra Scaggs NEW YORK--Stock futures extended losses steeply after the Labor Department reported jobs growth that came in well below expectations. About 60 minutes ahead of the open, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures shed 150 points, or 1%, to 14381. Before the report, blue-chip futures had declined around 80 points. Standard & Poor's 500-stock index futures gave up 18 points, or 1.2%, to 1536 and Nasdaq 100 futures lost 35 points, or 1.3%, to 2750. Changes in stock futures don't always accurately predict stock moves after the opening bell. The U.S. Labor Department's closely watched jobs report widely missed expectations for March, as payrolls increased 88,000 on expectations of 200,000. The latest data are another blow to stocks, which had fallen this week on other economic data that came in below expectations. The S&P 500 index has declined 0.6% so far this week, as of Thursday's close, and the 10-year Treasury note's yield has fallen to fresh 2013 lows. Earlier this week, data on private-sector payroll growth, the Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing and nonmanufacturing purchasing managers indexes and weekly jobless claims all missed expectations.

By Geraldine Amiel and Sam Schechner PARIS--The French government is considering selling portions of state-backed companies to help improve its finances, as the crisis in the euro zone's second-largest economy deepens, according to government officials. The socialist government of President Francois Hollande, which has already said it can't meet budget-deficit targets it promised its European peers last year, is exploring how it could sell off slices of companies without sacrificing the measure of control that government ownership helps it retain. "As part of the budget restructuring, and the modernization of our public policy, we are indeed thinking about changing our ownership stakes," France's industry minister Arnaud Montebourg said in an interview. "We're not ruling out that kind of move, but we do not want to lose our means of influence over companies." Any stake sales would come as the government struggles to rein in a fast-increasing debt load with an economy that has been stagnating for over a year. Mr. Hollande has raised taxes and pledged to cut spending, but still has little room for maneuver as he seeks to balance the country's budget by 2017. The French state directly and indirectly owns controlling stakes in stakes in several companies, such as nuclear-engineering group Areva SA (AREVA.FR), and has significant minority shares of companies including France Telecom SA (FTE.FR), airline Air France-KLM (AF.FR) and car maker Renault SA (RNO.FR). Mr. Montebourg declined to say which companies might come up for sale, but another government official said that selling some of the country's 85% stake in energy behemoth Electricite de France SA (EDF.FR) would be "the obvious choice." France's national debt grew 6.8% to 1.83 trillion euros ($2.37 trillion) in 2012, or more than 90% of the country's GDP. In the 2013 budget, the government forecasts that it will spend around EUR48.8 billion servicing its debt. EDF's shares have gained around 12% since the start of the year, and France can lower its stake to 70% under existing law. Reducing its stake down to 70% would garner about EUR4.3 billion based on EDF's current share price. An EDF spokeswoman declined to comment. France's ownership stakes are a legacy of the country's dirigiste past, in which the company nationalized companies, allowing it to control most major industries and run public monopolies. Since the start of the 1990s, successive French governments engaged in massive privatizations, but retained control over what were deemed "strategic assets" such as energy companies. Selling part of the family silver has already been done by France's previous government, under President Nicolas Sarkozy, who divested 3% of EDF in late 2007 to help finance a fund for universities. But later, because of the financial crisis stemming from the U.S. subprime crisis, followed by the euro-zone crisis, the value of the stakes nose-dived, making the government all the more reluctant to sell any shares. Late last month, France raised about EUR448.5 million from the sale of 3.12% of the capital of defense-equipment maker Safran SA (SAF.FR), bringing the French state's stake down to roughly 27%. The government said it planned to invest the proceeds elsewhere in the economy, rather than directly pay down the debt or plug holes in its finances. France also cut its voting stake in Airbus owner European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co. (EAD.FR) to 12% from 15% as part of an agreement with the German government. The country, at least initially, has parked those shares in a nonvoting trust, rather than selling them.

FX CHAT: Slowdown in U.S. data complicates life for ECB

This is the last thing ECB President Mario Draghi needed. A day after his press conference left the impression that European policy makers don't have any bold new measures up their sleeves to ease monetary policy, the weak labor report in the US is prompting traders to push back expectations for when the Fed will start to wind down its bond purchases. That's keeping the euro supported, and the single currency briefly jumped above $1.30 recently, complicating the recovery for Europe's struggling peripheral economies. Euro has pulled back a bit since and is trading at 1.2991, from $1.2936 late yesterday, according to EBS via CQG.

14468 is the DOW support line, doesn't look yet like it'll end the day broken.... Could be wrong though! Any thoughts?

CAD Ivey PMI 61.6 52.4 51.1

Looking for a silver lining to today's disappointing jobs report? Stone & McCarthy says it's the trend that's important. Looking at the first quarter of jobs reports, payrolls increased an average 168K a month. The six-month average is 188K a month, still near the 200K pace the Fed seems to be watching for. "It could be worse," firm's Terry Sheehan writes. "The underlying trends for improvement still seem to be in place."

as am only just back on line as have been travelling all day, did not dare leave my juicy ftse short running so banked a decent profit yesterday ...... don't grizzle you miserable old git, for you DID leave a good-sized dow short running, so yummy yummy and overall just about running a profit on the day ..... can't be bad!

someone asked a few posts back to where the indices were heading ......
my guru says
FTSE target 6125 - currently 6222
DOW target - currently 14465 - left open, but if you take a view on a 12.5% retrenchment from say 14550, then it sounds very silly indeed - but then so did the upside target of 14550 only 4/5 months ago in November

very pretty hilary, but do you disagree with the view in my post?

.

I don't pay any attention to targets, Cyners, so I don't have any view on your post I'm afraid.

That's nothing personal. To me, markets are either going up or down. Once you start thinking about where they might turn, that's the time you start getting into a mucking fuddle. I'd rather wait until they have turned, and then act accordingly.

All I know right know is that Shinzo's winning the currency war, Draghi's losing it and there are some central bankers in Zurich with very squeeky bums.

Back short on the DOW again.

thanks hilary .... i am not hidebound by targets, but they are useful guidelines ..... as it happens, i have just cashed in 60% of my Dow short as i'm whizzing about a bit

Love the currency analysis Hilary..

"squeeky bums" - just done a quick scan of my "technical terms" - nothing!

You'll need the female version matey..

Shortie,

Here's my GJ chart. I've been buying this since I woke up yesterday morning and saw the bottom oscillator had turned up in Asian trade overnight.