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

.

DOW looks to be heading for yet another hammering today

From the tv news / financial channels that I watch, I get the feeling that sentiment is starting to waver from the Bulls to the Bears. Nvidia, Apple and GM in the US have fallen heavily and the 'experts' are now talking about re-shuffling their portfolios into more defensive sectors.
Potentially higher interest rates might nudge sentiment a bit further into the defensive stocks.

DAX
just broken back north of 11,200
if it can hold then it's potentially quite important at least in the short term


FTSE
teasing to go above 7025
keep watching

Back down again.

markets set to surge at the open, with cash as i write
FTSE +119
DAX +213
DOW +473

US back on the slide

US markets shut tomorrow, I think, for the funeral of G W Bush.

Dow down 3+%.

??????????????

Another jolly day for us tomorrow then!

No sign of Christmas Rally after Mondays false dawn.

seems DOW was down nearly 800

cash indicators are vile once again, the markets being upset (apparently)by the arrest of this Huawei woman ..... surely not another implication that the chinese are eager to infiltrate western data on all levels?



meanwhile, the real labour leader says .....
Unite leader warns Labour against backing second referendum

Where is Santa?

best crumb i can offer is that DUP will back gov't in a vote of no confidence

Santa better get his sleigh up Wall Street asap.

Alf showing paranoid tendencies again!

Looking like Santa doesn’t exist CD ):-

Yes Stan.

My faith in him is waining.

He wont be coming down the chimney at this rate.

Non-farm payrolls today at 13:30 (GMT)
Expected +198,000 jobs in November vs +250,000 in October

====================

US wage growth held steady in November even as hiring slowed sharply, offering evidence that the labour market remains robust enough to justify at least one more increase in short-term interest rates by the Federal Reserve later this month.

Year-on-year wage growth was unchanged at 3.1 per cent, the quickest pace since April 2009, according to data released on Friday by the labour department. The world’s biggest developed economy added 155,000 jobs in November, compared to the 250,000 increase recorded in October and well below economists’ forecasts of 198,000.

1 trillion dollars gone on US Markets this week.

Fingers crossed for next week