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

U.S. economy added 160,000 jobs in April, below recent monthly levels, and unemployment held steady at 5%.

US job growth disappoints but wages rise
The pace of job growth cooled sharply in April but wage growth ticked up more than forecast, highlighting the tough decision for Federal Reserve policymakers as they mull rate increases.

Another good day for Gold so far.

so then, all sorts of excitement since i left for the gym and (now) returned

when i left, DOW had dumped 100 points
when i got back in my car an hour or so later, it was + a tad
as i write, i see it is now -56

may extend my short again as i see S&P remains just below 2045

Tide turning for the ft turning or not?

turning which way?
indices dithering about for no particular reason, other than crude rising abit on the back of the canadian fires

Only that the Dow futures is on the way down to red, but of course that may well turn back.

another strange old day, but perhaps worth noting that DAX has not held above 10,000, and by the time it closes, just maybe below 9,950

The "go away in May" theme being repeated perhaps later in the month.

Crap for commodities and oil etc.

shall be very happy to see the indices crumble ..... but any shorts will be closed before referendum day

Yup you shouldn't be long or short come June 23rd unless you like a pure gamble or you strongly believe you can predict the vote .

DOW
that's a jolly little tumble while i was busy sorting out some e's

from one of my non-partisan trade sources .......

Saudi To Continue Producing Full Throttle
What the change probably means, then, is that Saudi will continue producing at near-record levels. Bloomberg cited analysts from Emirates NBD PJSC and Qamar Energy as saying Sunday that Saudi could even exceed its record production of 10.5 M/bpd if it produces more to meet a seasonal rise in domestic demand this summer. Saudi's April production stood at 10.27 M/bpd.

ft fallen 50 odd pts.. what's happened to cause that?

no idea, any more than why it shot up o'night

Dow futures still little changed.

Plunge protection team were activated last Friday in US rumour has it.

Who are they and what might that mean then?

Try to prevent huge moves to the downside. Who they are is a good guess.