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

Well, like most people I'm sure, my SIPP & ISA continue to reach new highs. That statement will now kill the market!

French Prelim GDP q/q -0.2% -0.1% -0.2%

German Prelim GDP q/q 0.1% 0.3% -0.7%

French CPI m/m -0.1% 0.1% 0.8%

Skinny, both CGL & AML have pinged up on my research as high yielders and steady growth. Both are in a pretty dull sector of Insurance underwriting & reinsurance, but maybe one for your ISA or SIPP.

Thanks Harry - they both have anything but dull charts.

Italian Prelim GDP q/q -0.5% -0.4% -0.9%

GBP Claimant Count Change -7.3K -3.1K -7.0K

GBP Average Earnings Index 3m/y 0.4% 0.7% 0.8%

GBP Unemployment Rate 7.8% 7.9% 7.9%

Hi Bealerboy - no just that I have topped up on Amer so only had limited funds available to invest in either gold or FTSE - so I chose to short Gold - a good decision so far. Plan is to leave it there for longer term

CHF ZEW Economic Expectations 2.2 20.0

EUR Flash GDP q/q -0.2% -0.1% -0.6%

Merve the swerve on shortly.

Bank of England sees brighter growth outlook, lower inflation

LONDON | Wed May 15, 2013 10:43am BST
(Reuters) - The Bank of England bucked the trend of its recent forecasts on Wednesday by modestly upgrading its growth outlook and pencilling in a faster fall in inflation.

In its quarterly economic update, the central bank gave no sign that it was on the verge doing more stimulus, describing policy as "highly stimulatory", but noted that risks to recovery remained to the downside.

"The economy is likely to see a modest and sustained recovery over the next three years," the central bank said, though it added that the recovery would "remain weak by historical standards".

CAD Manufacturing Sales m/m -0.3% 0.6% 2.8%

USD PPI m/m -0.7% -0.6% -0.6%

USD Core PPI m/m 0.1% 0.1% 0.2%

USD Empire State Manufacturing Index -1.4 3.6 3.1

USD TIC Long-Term Purchases -13.5B 33.8B -13.3B

USD Capacity Utilization Rate 77.8% 78.4% 78.5%

USD Industrial Production m/m -0.5% -0.1% 0.4%

So low rate is justified, money supply will continue.

6,700 today.

J P Morgan 'Whale Trades'. What a fascinating story on TV this evening. Even the 'so called experts' got it so badly wrong, but it seems it's all about your perception of risk. I suppose it all depends on how much you can afford to lose and to whom you are answerable!

My gold doing well so far - wish I had FTSE as well

Harry, I caught some of the programme - quite amazing how the huge numbers were bandied about.

Italian Trade Balance 3.24B 1.72B 1.09B

CAD Foreign Securities Purchases 1.19B 5.36B -6.28B

USD Building Permits 1.02M 0.94M 0.89M

USD Core CPI m/m 0.1% 0.2% 0.1%

USD Unemployment Claims 360K 332K 328K

USD CPI m/m -0.4% -0.3% -0.2%

USD Housing Starts 0.85M 0.98M 1.02M

Philly Fed Manufacturing Index -5.2 2.5 1.3