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

First-time weekly jobless claims surge to 496,000 and have increased by more than 10% in the past two weeks, U.S. says.

FTSE through 5500 where next?

target is 5768 (10780 for Dow), but surely will correct before then, and perhaps quite sharply

Fingers crossed. I'm getting my arse kicked at the mo. Back to the drawing board maybe.

you should be neutral of the indices in my view, using them and their targets and similar as guides only for the time being

I thought that the dollar would drop against the pound.....exactly the opposite has happened.

no one likes the possibility of a hung parliament

Frankly, the Labour news, euhhh sorry, the BBC have been promoting this as much as possible .....I think it's going be a Tory government soon.....they should put some sense back into Britain's finances.....surely nobody in the right mind would vote for Brown's lot again....oh....perhaps they will...nuts isn't it ?....

The problem I think is the huge client state Brown has established - they'll probably vote him in.

It's time for a change, I could write a whole page on the subject.

It most certainly is time for change - I can't bear the thought of five more years of Brown. Every time I see him on the telly, my blood pressure goes up a good few notches!

A lot of people will emigrate if he gets in again.

Summary of Goldman Sachs' note on tomorrow's non-farm payrolls:
"February was an unusually wintry month in the eastern United States, with three significant snowstorms, two of which ranked among the highest-impact storms of the last half-century. Financial markets are focused on how this may affect the upcoming economic numbers, particularly Friday's payroll report.
Teasing out the impact of snowstorms on the employment news is a complex endeavor, because no two storms are the same in timing or magnitude. Both extensive snow and colder-than-usual weather can delay hiring enough to have substantial impact on payrolls, more than a hundred thousand jobs on a few occasions. Our forecast of a decline of 100,000 payroll jobs assumes the February snowstorms will delay at least this many net hires. Assuming a return to more normal weather, March payrolls should post a substantial rebound."

US unempoyment numbers clearly encouraging as cash Dow now +50

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here you are .... Employers shed 36,000 jobs in February - better than expected. Unemployment rate held steady at 9.7%.

Tremendous end to the week....long may this continue....

There is a considerable list of companies on the LSE going ex-divi today, so looks like trading may be flat. All a bit dull & very low volumes.

FTSE and DOW both moving ahead where to next 5800 and 11000?

can't see employment figures yet on CNN, but as cash Dow has stayed steady, they're surely no worse than expected

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as it happens just 2,000 worse than forecast
Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell to 462,000 in latest week, Labor Department says.

this won't hurt - ex USA
Retail sales show surprising strength in February, rising 0.3% in a government report.

How slow it all is atm! By the look of it (& crowds on telly) everyone except me has disappeared off to Cheltenham!