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 now looking to open +36. Onwards & upwards, hopefully!

Better expected results from Us bank this morning miners holding ftse back, certainly a good day yesterday to have bought into banks eg lloyds though perhaps only for a short hold

JPMorgan earnings tumble but the giant banking company's results still manage to surpass Wall Street's expectations.

Last Updated: July 17, 2008: 7:18 AM EDT

JPMorgan Chase said Thursday that earnings plunged in the second quarter, stung by $1.1 billion in writedowns, but the firm still managed to beat Wall Street projections.

JPMorgan's shares rose more than 3% in pre-market trading.

The New York-based bank reported net income of $2 billion in the second quarter. The firm said earnings fell 55%, to 54 cents per share from $1.20 a share in the year-earlier quarter.

But without the $540 million net loss stemming from the acquisition of Bear Stearns, net income would have been $2.5 billion, the company said. The merger closed in May.

Analysts had expected a 64% decline in earnings to 44 cents per share, according to a consensus provided by Thomson/FirstCall.

Best enjoy the bear market rally whilst it lasts, oil dropping through 130 would send dow a lot higher though not so good for ftse oils. just a comment for people who like to trade us but find dow too volatile...s&p can be played on spreadbet accounts at far lower leverage levels if preferred

even this news (Construction of single-family homes plummets to 17-year low) does not seem to have upset Dow opening indications

" Merrill Lynch & Co. probably will report its fourth straight quarterly loss later today because of credit-market writedowns, analysts estimate."

Anyone any idea what time they report today?
EDIT: "The company will post the latest figures today after the market shuts."

big bids coming

they report after the US market closes Harrycat
Whoops! Just seen you've already said that!

(Dow) Stocks open higher, boosted by better-than-expected profits from JPMorgan, Coca-Cola and United Technologies.

are fools buying this

Oil falls more than $4 to drop below $130 for the first time in six weeks. Stocks rally with Dow up almost 200 points.

so the answer is "Seemingly so!"

after hours, Microsoft figures a bit parson's egg and Merrill's look horrid, but indications are that market not hugely affected (Dow off 40) which is fairly surprising but good news if proven to be so

the market will do what the market wants irrespective of results. Out of 4 companies. Merrill horrendous, Google missed by a mile, Microsoft mixed and IBM good. On that basis the market should fall tomorrow but I wouldn't put any money on it!

MERRILL DOWN 10%

Seems to be some support at 11350. Think the market wants to go up. The technical guy at investor's chronicle was predicting a 7-800 bear rally on the ftse around the 5200 mark a few weeks ago that might also coincide with a drop in crude looks like he has been proved half right so far. 1305 on the s&p seemed to be the key support for this rally but as I undserstand it from mr market ticker the fed has injected 250 billion dollars in the system for fannie and freddie and that's hitting the dollar, good for exports but not inflation. Today has seen a big commodity sell off but are the instiutions really going to switch into banks from oils and miners? Yesterday the prices for uk banks were reaching silly levels but looks like hbos will not meet rights issue price so there could be trouble there! Airlines and cruise liners must get a brief bit of respite from the oil anyway

agreed that unfortunately this is probably a short term rally so we have to make the most of it.

could be one hell of a day!
US finishes on a high but earnings after close disappoint. End result is we open lower. So I guess we could crash today or alternately we could recover and continue the rally. Ant bets anyone?

I suspect everyone is rotating out of commodities (slowing economy = less demand) into the beaten up financials (high yield etc.). Probably not great for the FTSE being so commodity heavy.....double trouble too if the banks have more bad numbers, and we see dividends getting trimmed because of money raising problems.

I also wonder if inflation is really going away. I wouldn't be surprised to see commodities bounce again later in the year, when China ramps up production/building again after the olympics. Of course they may not have too many buyers of goods in the West come Christmas time... :-)

In my opinion.

Strawbs.

Options expiry today and nasdaq hit by disappointing goog and micro

Strawbs, "double trouble too if the banks have more bad numbers"...what do you mean "if" -):