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

on top of it he put zero rates.....that will cost him some 1.7% of GDP or equivalent of 3mil unemployment...no growth in accelerating debt...and we've got rally everywhere.. come on...

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Fairfax Bet Looks Tough on Paper 11 of 12

Housing's Firmer Foundation 12 of 12


BRUSSELS—A long-awaited agreement to restructure more than €200 billion ($262 billion) of Greek government bonds in private hands is being held up in large part by big differences between two of Greece's official creditors: the International Monetary Fund and Germany.
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.Euro Zone Crisis Tracker

The IMF has argued, increasingly vociferously, that cutting the face value of the €200 billion of Greece's debt in private hands won't be enough to reduce the government's debt to the official target of 120% of gross domestic product by 2020—a goal many analysts consider not ambitious enough.

The fund says a credible deal will also require sacrifices from Greece's official creditors in Europe—the European Central Bank and national governments. In a sign of how the issue has moved onto the agenda, it has spawned an acronym: OSI. That stands for "official-sector involvement" and is a parallel to PSI—private-sector involvement, the euphemism for pushing private investors to take losses.

Heard on the Street
European Bond Rally May Have Legs
.Germany sees the problem differently. It is adamant there should be no official-sector involvement, and it opposes filling a growing gap in Greek finances by making more loans from governments. With its parliament already chafing at German-financed transfers to Greece, Germany wants that gap to be filled by deeper cuts in the Greek budget.

The IMF argues further draconian budget cuts aren't achievable and will make Greece's economic program more likely to veer further off track. It is shifting its main focus away from the budget andtoward making sure structural changes, such as an overhaul of Greece's labor market, are put in place.

"Germany feels it is being cornered by the IMF," says Mujtaba Rahman, a former European Union official who is now an analyst with the Eurasia Group in New York. "The IMF is insisting on OSI, on a larger than currently envisioned amount of funding for the new program and a relaxation of Greece's deficit targets. Germany, however, has the opposite position: no OSI, conservative amounts for the new program and strict deficit targets."

This is the context, analysts say, for the proposal from Germany's finance ministry that emerged last week for Greece's budget to be managed in future partly from Brussels. That proposal got an angry response from Greece and received little support at an EU summit Monday.

Euro-zone officials said official sector involvement is now under active consideration. There are several ways this can be achieved—and the IMF has said it has no preference for how it is done.

The most obvious—and controversial—is for the ECB to make concessions over the estimated €40 billion in Greek bonds it holds because of buys it made seeking to calm Europe's sovereign-bond markets.

The ECB declined to comment.

The bank has resisted participating in the deal being worked out with private bondholders, which would force it to take losses. That is regarded by many governments as a step too far, not least because it would provide a disincentive for such market purchases in the future, for countries such as Portugal, Spain and Italy.

MarketWatch.com columnist Brett Arends has many questions regarding Europe's economic crisis and visits Mean Street to try to unravel the mystery.
.However, as one senior official said this week, the ECB could contribute not by taking a loss—but by "forgoing profits." That would mean devising a mechanism to take the bonds off the ECB's balance sheet at the prices at which it bought them. Given estimated purchase prices of 70%-75% of face value, the ECB's participation could generate a further €10 billion of debt reduction for Greece to add to €100 billion from the restructuring of private debt.

Another option being discussed is for an estimated €12 billion of bonds being held by central banks around the euro zone in investment portfolios to be tendered in the private deal. This would leave the secondary market purchases intact—and cut Greece's debts by a further roughly €6 billion.

Another option under consideration, a euro-zone official said, would be for euro-zone governments to cut the interest rate on bilateral loans made to Greece. The governments have lent Greece €52.9 billion so far, and Greece is due a further €27.1 billion under the bailout agreed in May 2010. A cut of one percentage point on the loans could generate several billion euros in savings though 2020.

Time is short because Greece faces a €14.5 billion bond payment in late March unless it has restructured its debt by then. Officials hope a special meeting of euro-zone finance ministers will sign off on the deal as early as Monday in Brussels—but officials say that depends on Greek politicians making a credible commitment to do their part beforehand, something that can't be taken for granted.

They should of never gone down this road (thanks Germany and France) Sound like Greece needs another 27.1 billion Euros. How long will this last ?

Services PMI 56 v consensus 53.5 previous 54.0

so which of you smart-arses are still losing their shorts? ..... your arses must indeed be smarting from being spanked soundly

if 5833 last beachhead failed , i'll be failed too

Non-Farm Employment Change 243K v consensus 150K previous 200K

bollocks , closed half , hopefully strong open attract some sellers

tom don't be a bad loser.

lol....

undoubtely i'm joining the club in here..

tom do you work for shares mag/TW then?

more like mf global for now... lol..im off for now...be back later...

ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI 56.8 v consensus 53.1 previous 52.6


Factory Orders m/m 1.1% v consensus 1.5%previous 1.8%

if you want to short, then dow if it gets to 12950 and perhaps ftse just before it hits 6000 .... stay alert as both barely 100 points short of those targets

CAD Building Permits m/m 11.1% v consensus 0.2% previous -3.6%

but there is still no volumeat these highs , even my asc got no volume conviction in highs... seems like market is waiting for some big news... can be europe can be iran..

Trouble is the greek solution may drag on until the last minute......13th ....15th feb? Was hoping for news today, but not yet forthcoming.

Bernanke: U.S. Labor Market ‘Long Way’ From Normal

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke repeated that the job market is still far from healthy after signs of economic improvement over the past year, and he called on
lawmakers to reduce the long-term budget deficit.

“We still have a long way to go before the labor market can be said to be operating normally,” Bernanke said in testimony prepared for the Senate Budget Committee that is identical to remarks he gave on Feb. 2 to the House Budget panel. “Particularly troubling is the unusually high level of long-term unemployment.”

The jobless rate unexpectedly fell to 8.3 percent in January, a government report showed on Feb. 3. Bernanke’s testimony today indicated that his views on the health of the labor market haven’t changed, even though he didn’t refer to the January data. The economy added 243,000 jobs last month, according to the report, exceeding the most optimistic forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of economists.

Benny boy stating the bleeding obvious yet again