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 think that is unfair ..... Obama was damned if he did and damned if he didn't ..... what i find so disgusting is the lack of honest bipartisan debate in a time a undoubted national crisis .... instead of that, we got the customary vicious party politicking (from both sides) with no care for the the country at all

I have to agree cynic, whilst I'm no fan of Obama,he was caught between a rock and a hard place. I think they way the yanks behaved over this was a disgrace. Their world status could well now be in it's death throes.

i would have liked to have seen US gov't taking the bull by the horns, as we did here ..... although we had much gnashing of teeth, i have little doubt that the tough decisions taken were absolutely right ...... for sure there will still be a bit of tweaking or softening here and there, but i'm sure the country will recover its health very much quicker for having swallowed the bitter pill

.

Its time the countries finances are taken away from politicians. Who do not always take the best route for the country, more to keep them in power. Thats what I like about the conservatives they are doing whats best for the country, not winning the next election.

cynic another year of obama is not going to strengthen their economy the capitalists are voting with their feet, time to get rid of toothless liberals.

indeed halifax, but it's interesting to wonder if that after all the recent (100 years or so) financial debacles, perhaps capitalism isn't all it's cracked up to be! Did I say that?
ps I'm not necessarily offering an alternative :-)

dow attempting to finish positive though in a pretty desultory fashion

General Motors' second-quarter earnings nearly double to $2.5 billion, revenue rises 19% to $39.4 billion.
i assume this easily beat forecast, but could not spot

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GM earned $1.54 a share in the quarter, far better than the $1.20 a share forecast of analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

cynic - Revenue rose 19 percent to $39.4 billion, above the $36.74 billion analysts had expected during a quarter, where U.S. auto sales hit a soft patch.

on edit :- overlapping posts!

now see updated above too ..... some prelim unemployment figures due out before the bell, and that is really the key to today

Due 1:30 our time.

5500 on the cusp!

TRICHET - 4850 :O)

unemployment numbers must be at least ok as dow has suddenly reversed it's direction though still well down as i write ..... more to follow

Previous Consensus Actual
Initial Jobless Claims 398.0 408.0 400.0

Number of people filing for initial unemployment benefits falls 1,000 to 400,000 in the latest week, the government says.
Economists expected weekly unemployment claims to rise to 405,000 from last week's 398,000 claims.


Dow all over the place, zipping up/down by 50/60 points

BARC @2 down 5.9%

Trouble in the eurozone is spreading. Its going to get a lot worse before better, sorry.

Trichet's speech went down well!!