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

i am certainly concerned about dow and shall be even more so if 12300 is broken with any impetus - and we are now perilously close to that level

ditto ftse and 5760

Have moved about 25% of my stocks into cash until the autumn and tried to reduce the risk factor in whats left (i.e. looking for income rather than growth). I still think the end of QE11 is going to impact the market and with certain countries putting up interest rates(U.K. soon to follow), there may well be a move back to savings rather than equities.

The FED will not suddenly remove liquidity from the market, this will be managed over a period of 2-3 years. As long as there no QE3 they should be able to manage inflation.

i'm sure i've said it before but i'm happy to repeat ..... the chemical industry is a good barometer for world economies ..... it started a few months back but is growing stronger; that is the shipment of chemicals which of course form the base of most things that we use .... the clear implication is restocking

As I have also said before, I have shares in YULC & AZEM but they are not exactly going anywhere at the moment, so not sure that your conclusion is spread evenly across the chemicals industry. You may well be correct, but sadly not in the stocks I own!

we work internationally so have a much broader picture

Boast boast.,.

I would say something worth keeping an eye on is PMI (purchasing managers index) figures, which are mostly now showing some signs of slowing growth. http://www.minyanville.com/businessmarkets/articles/Eurozone-PMI-germany-economy-euro-eurozone/5/24/2011/id/34739

now look at south and central america ..... an extract from a much longer article .....

IMF world economic outlook (april 2011)
growth in the region is projected to average 4.75% in 2011 and 4.25% in 2012 ..... which 0.66% higher than forecast in october 2010 .... greater confidence in the strength of global recovery and improved prospects for commodity prices

cynic percentages are always pretty meaningless.

i fully concur, but i was merely supporting my earlier observation about general economic growth as flagged by increased activity in the chemical markets

U.S. non-farm payrolls this friday. Not seen any predictions yet, but market may be a bit twitchy in the run up.

unquestionably a bloodbath ahead for the morning - hazard a guess at opening down 70/80 ..... i wonder if even RKH will escape; would be nice to think it will

DOW futures currently -42, so no help from there as to what is expected this afternoon.

clenched sphincters!

A buying opportunity then later in the day?

haven't seen the numbers but clearly us jobs data is serious shit as market indicating -130 which is well below supposed support level

up 54K-- unemployment 9.1%
2517

54,000 jobs created, but the analysts consensus was for 190,000. Unemployment rate up to 9.1% due to increased labour force (i.e. people returning to the job market).

what was expectation?