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

FX CHAT: Yen strength could be a boon for Treasury bulls

A weak US growth outlook posts risk for the short-yen, long dollar trade which could tilt the markets in favor of Treasury bonds vs riskier trades. The dollar's surge toward Y100 has stalled and the yen Friday rallied broadly, which pushed investors to dial back on yen-based carry trades. Yen bears like Goldman's Jim O'Neill have cited improving US growth as one factor driving dollar-yen rally along with BOJ money printing. But if US data continue to soften, expectations will rise that the Fed may keep QE3 into 2014. The may jolt dollar bulls and could spark more rebound in the yen, a case that could spur more unwinding of yen carry trades. The 10-year note is 11/32 higher, yielding 1.672%. The dollar recently down over 1% at Y97.87.

There was a large 100.00 USD/JPY options barrier that got heavily defended a few days ago, shortie. I'm sure that punter will be a natural buyer now. :o)

Reversal or a breather, a breather I suspect...

EUR Retail PMI 44.2 43.7

nice start to the day for me with banked profit on hg+hc ..... now comfortably below exit point and might pop back in again shortly

nice start to the day for me with banked profit on hg+hc ..... now comfortably below exit point and might pop back in again shortly

Italian 10-y Bond Auction 3.94|1.4 4.66|1.3

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

USD Personal Spending m/m 0.2% 0.2% 0.7%

USD Personal Income m/m 0.2% 0.4% 1.1%

USD Pending Home Sales m/m 1.5% 1.1% -0.4%

dow is creeping through 14800, but keep a wary eye open as (if) it approaches 14900

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discretion being the better part of valour, have shut dow long at 14808 for another nice profit .... that still leaves a ftse long running as well as (another) hg+hc

CMC showing the FTSE @ 6,945 and causing me a problem!

Skinny, that's a helluva jump!
Possibly 6495?

Software problem apparently!

German Retail Sales m/m -0.3% -0.2% -0.3%

GfK German Consumer Climate 6.2 5.9 5.9

French Consumer Spending m/m 1.3% 0.2% -0.2%

Spanish Flash GDP q/q -0.5% -0.5% -0.8%

German Unemployment Change 4K 2K 13K

Italian Monthly Unemployment Rate 11.5% 11.7% 11.6%

GBP Net Lending to Individuals m/m 0.9B 0.9B 1.5B

GBP M4 Money Supply m/m -0.9% 0.4% -0.5%

GBP Mortgage Approvals 54K 53K 52K