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

The government reported that orders for durable goods fell 1.3%. A consensus of economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast a decrease of 1.4% in durable goods for August.

There is also a report on new home sales, due out at 10 a.m. ET. The report comes a day after existing home sales came in slightly above expectations.

==========

IG Wall Street cash showing +110, but all will be revealed in the next couple of hours

The rise in durables ex-transportation (which surged +2.0%) and the July upward revision were the important bits of the data.

Your possible correction coming Cynic? Last time the FTSE100 double topped like this on the chart the fall was a progressive 300 point dip. Also, historically sept/Oct has been a traditionally difficult time on the markets. Certainly a red day today!

Gold has just broken through $1300 an ounce....after being 12 dollars down...now plus eight....I reckon another surge for the producers perhaps....and oil is also up after being down....could be blue tomorrow....

Have been listening to the guys on CNN this evening and although they are delighted that the DOW is up almost 200 points, partly on the good news from the Japanese banks, but they are anxious that the rise is on very low volumes & may be the last spurt before a correction. Sentiment seems bullish & Warren Buffet seems very happy with the way Ben B & his cronies have dealt with the crisis. Long term looking good, but very short term looking fragile.

From EK today:
"Finally, I am being cheerfully castrated whilst not under an anaesthetic by my shorts of gold, FTSE and EURUSD. But I am brave and have no intention of yielding."
That's fine for him, but anyone following his example would now be close to skint!

RF shitting him self i think....

around 19:00 i thought dow was going to dump - it was then down 50/60 - and am pleasantly surprised to see recovery to effective b/e

Hey ?....I'm going long on gold mid caps and a few minnows....it just keeps on rising....now and again it pulls back but the trend is one hell of a climb.....what on earth is EK doing shorting gold for ?.../...ok....when we have a top that can be clearly defined...perhaps ...but for the moment...it's a rise....

Who is EK?????

Not listening to Bloomberg, CNBC, CNN and any other so called experts prior to US Jobs report 1330 tomorrow not one of them has got a clue.

CC, this is EK:
"Evil Knievil
Fresh from making 1 million shorting Northern Rock, the man the Daily Mail dubbed The King of the Short Sellers (otherwise known as Simon Cawkwell) is Britain's most feared bear-raider. A trained accountant, he made his name exposing the fiction that were Bob Maxwell's accounts. Evil does not give investment advice on this website but three times a week he chats to his faithful diarist - Tom Winnifrith. His diarist then writes and takes full responsibility for the Evil Knievil diaries." (T1ps.com)

Cheers Harry,aye well aware of him.

talk about mixed signals!!
U.S. economy lost 95,000 jobs in September, but private sector gained 64,000 jobs, U.S. says. Unemployment rate stays at 9.6%.

no idea what was predicted

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The job market suffered another blow last month, as business hiring dwindled, and the government continued to shed workers.

Overall, the economy lost a total of 95,000 jobs in September, the Labor Department reported Friday, far worse than expected and down from the previous month, when employers shed 57,000 jobs.

But while government cuts, especially related to the end of the 2010 census, have dragged down the overall number for several months, businesses have added jobs for nine months in a row.

Private businesses added 64,000 workers in September, while the government shed 159,000 workers, mostly because of temporary census jobs ending and strapped local government scaling back.

Overall, the jobs number disappointed economists, who were expecting a flat month, according to consensus estimates from Briefing.com

The unemployment rate was unchanged at 9.6%. Economists had forecast a slight increase to 9.7%.

DOW at 11096. This has got to run out of steam soon, surely?
Cynic, may I ask what your Guru is predicting as to the upper (R) pivot point? Or anything that is going to be remotely useful as to the correction level!
I am sitting on cash now as I sell & take profit, but the damn thing still keeps going up!

I went short Dow earlier @ 11,148 and will stick it out for a while. All seems overblown to me, but hey, wtfdik!
The usual view states that the trend is your friend 'til the bend at the end as we all know, and there isn't much of a bend yet!
Also long a little RKH @ 387 - ouch! :) Rachel is key

Good results from GOOGLE apparently.

As highlighted in the w/e FT, next few weeks may see the start of a DOW drop.- U.S. third quarter earning reporting, which have to be as good as expected - U.S. mid term elections and worry as to who will control Congress (2nd Nov) - U.S. FOMC meeting to set interest rates and decide on QEII (3rd Nov) - U.S. payroll figures (5th Nov)

EK's view today:
"Finally, I am continuing to be exterminated by my index shorts and that of gold. So far, my latest chart update advises that S&P should drop 8% from 1170. I do wish it would get on with it."

my guru, he say

DOW
stay neutral
buy on pullback 10815

FTSE
stay neutral
buy on pullback to 5410