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

They are on my list - ex dividend next week I believe - I've got quite a few doing very well in the sector - mainly SIPPed.

On edit - yield is just over 7%.

I was debating XLON over LMP, still undecided though. DAX mainly has my attention still.

Shortie - I take it you mean UKCM?

EUR Minimum Bid Rate 0.50% 0.50% 0.75%

UKCM looks a nice one. Some of the LSE data is incorrect, though supplied by Morningstar. PE to dec 2012 of -160.49, on Digitallook 14.7 . Yield is good at c7.7% .Prospective PE is interesting at 17.0, though is there any reason to assume next year will be the same as last year?

UKCM thats the one, well spotted Skinny.

CAD Trade Balance 0.0B -0.7B -1.0B

USD Trade Balance -38.8B -42.1B -43.0B

USD Unemployment Claims 324 K 346K 339K

USD Prelim Nonfarm Productivity q/q 0.7% 1.8% -1.9%

USD Prelim Unit Labor Costs q/q 0.5% 0.8% 4.6%

From a yield perspective UKCM should be stable due to the cover being built in from the tender offer. Shareprice stability is anyones guess but due to the yield cover I would think it would help smooth out fluctuations.

By Geoffrey T. Smith European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said Thursday the bank will step up its efforts to aid the flow of credit to businesses, providing a further support to the economy to supplement the cut in official interest rates that the bank had announced earlier. At his regular press conference following the ECB governing council's meeting, President Mario Draghi said that the ECB would start "consultations with other European institutions on a functioning market for asset-backed securities collateralized by loans to non-financial corporations," but didn't immediately say how close the ECB was to activating any such program. Mr. Draghi's announcement hints at a way of removing the risk of lending to small and medium-sized businesses from banks, in an effort to overcome the stifling level of risk aversion currently visible in many areas of the euro zone. The ECB already accepts ABS as collateral for its funds when it lends to banks, but at discounts that many banks find prohibitive. The rest of Mr. Draghi's introductory statement at the press conference contained no hint of other radical new measures to stimulate the economy. However, he repeated that the ECB's monetary policy would remain "accommodative for as long as is necessary." He added that it will keep the current regime of lending banks as much money as they want until at least the middle of next year. He also repeated his call upon the euro zone to make swift progress in implementing its Banking Union project, which he said was crucial to reducing the degree of fragmentation in the euro zone's financial market--a term used by the ECB to refer to the failure of the ECB's low official rates to feed through into final borrowing costs in stressed countries such as Italy and Greece. As reported, the ECB had earlier cut its main refinancing rate by 25 basis points to a new record low of 0.50%. It also cut its marginal lending rate to 1% from 1.50%, but decided not to experiment with cutting the rate on its deposit facility below zero. In explaining the bank's decisions, Mr. Draghi said the decisions "are consistent with low underlying price pressure over the medium term," and acknowledged that "weak economic sentiment has extended into the spring." He added that the rate cuts "should support recovery later in the year."

Crazy day on the DAX keeps the money coming.

Looks better than the FTSE today - I'm currently long @6411, having dithered on the short side all morning and doing nothing!

Out @51.

Well done skinny, I wonder which way hilarys indicators are pointing on GJ at the moment as I fancy a short position.

Typical - RSI turned up and off it goes.

On a very basic criteria of Div yield & F/cast div yield both being greater than 5.5%, EPS growth being a positive number & P/E & PEG being about right for the sector, only a few have pinged up:
HFD, IAP, LRD. (KCOM & UKCM almost qualify with slight -ve EPS growth figures, but meet other criteria). Not yet looked at NAV, gearing etc, but ignoring the EPS growth figure, there are a few others such as AML, BBY, CLLN, DLG, FGP, HSTN, POG, PHNX, SGRO, TLPR all high yielders).

Shorting the 225 overnight.

GBP Services PMI 52.9 52.5 52.4

UK service sector grows at fastest rate in eight months in April - PMI

(Reuters) - Britain's dominant services sector recorded its strongest growth since last summer's Olympics in April, a survey showed on Friday, adding to signs that the slow economic recovery may be gaining some traction.

The surprisingly robust reading will be a relief for the government, which has faced mounting criticism of the austerity programme it launched three years ago that has been hobbled by weak growth at home and around the world.

The Markit/CIPS services Purchasing Managers' Index rose to 52.9 in April, its highest reading since August and the fourth consecutive monthly rise. Economists in a Reuters poll had expected the index to stay at March's level of 52.4.

15min charts

US tanker plane 'crashes in Kyrgyzstan after take off'