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

Athens clashes in Greece over Greece Eurozone austerity deal

Protesters have clashed with police in the Greek capital Athens, amid anger over fresh austerity measures approved under pressure from Eurozone ministers.

Demonstrators threw rocks and petrol bombs at police, who responded with tear gas. The clashes came after trade unions began a 48-hour strike.

Parliament is expected to vote on a package of cuts and reforms on Sunday.

Eurozone ministers say MPs must approve it before Greece receives 130bn euros ($170bn; £110bn) in bailout funds.

CAD Trade Balance 2.7B v consensus 0.7B previous 1.1B


USD Trade Balance -48.8B v consensus -48.1B previous -47.8B

pretty nice meltdown today, still too high, euro/dol back where it should be, hope market will realize that greece will never get bailout, instead of that money will go to support italy.

you do talk such rubbish! ..... it is (almost) a racing certainty that despite all the rattling by various opposition parties in greece, that this latest austerity package will indeed be approved on sunday, or at least before the genuine deadline ..... if it isn't, then all sorts of horrid things start to happen, but for sure the pot will not be up for grabs for italy

once again, in short, greece will default not get money, the money instead will cover stroger italy with LTRO covering collateral .

cynic it appears portugal is likely to receive some extra financial assistance from germany.

btw these austerity packages are nonsense out of greece reality and undoable.

hali - glad we're not in eurozone?

cynic "never say never" but certainly at the moment there is no incentive to consider joining, in fact the way the germans are behaving suggests we wasted a great deal fighting two world wars.

old family affairs?...lol

Greeks vote this evening on their austerity decision. Will set the mood for monday morning.

CBI says UK will avoid double dip recession

Britain will avoid a double dip recession and modest growth should restart later this year, according to business lobby group the CBI.

In its latest economic forecast, the employers' organisation expects growth of 0.9% in 2012 and 2% next year.

French Prelim GDP q/q 0.2% v consensus -0.2% previous 0.3%

German Prelim GDP q/q -0.2% v consensus -0.3% previous 0.5%

Hong Kong is up over 400, Japan is up over 150. We cannot go down if China is contributing to EU found. IMO

Claimant Count Change 6.9k v consensus 3.2K previous 1.2K

short Dow @ 12,938

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out Dow +80

out dow today and that would be +180

Weekly jobless claims fall to 348,000, the lowest level in nearly 4 years. Housing starts and building permits rise in January.