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

Hewlett-Packard sales fall short of forecasts

Revenues for the three months to the end of January fell 7% on a year earlier to $30bn (£19bn). Analysts had forecast revenues of $30.67bn.

Net profit for the quarter nearly halved from $2.6bn to $1.5bn.

Apple iPad sale ban case dismissed for now in Shanghai

Apple can for now continue to sell the iPad tablet in Shanghai after a court ruling over naming rights was suspended on Thursday.

Chinese firm Proview had called for the courts to prevent Apple - who it accuses of infringing its trademark - from selling the device in the city.

US + ukx looks to me like to be on a high .. ..iran....cool , china hard lending + manuf slowdown ...relax , oil up...chill out , europe recession+ cds... no problem... divergences...piece of cake.. bad news are no longer bad.. maniana....

t
thanks for your views on the market.clearly going down in your opinion then.
what do you mean by 'bad news are no longer bad'. would appreciate your
explanation as it appears to be contradictary. what do you mean?
thanks and regards
jkd

kind of simple summary to me or think doji out of range .. but as far as i remember your misses on asc area it not suprising me that you could understand something else.. regards and you welcome anytime.

Anyone for 6,000 today - if LLOY results are even slightly positive?

US New Home Sales 321k v consensus 316K previous 307K

i was hoping that nice sell off will hold but all that bailout nonsense and even bigger ECB scam holding market up...

Are we there yet?

Ooops


US Core Durable Goods Orders m/m -3.2% v consensus 0.0% previous 2.2%


US Durable Goods Orders m/m -4.0% v consensus -0.8% previous 3.0%

Just closed a FTSE short +25 - I thought it may drop more on those figures.

US CB Consumer Confidence 70.8 v consensus 63.1 previous 61.5

Which one is more important, if any at all?

Take your pick - Today's calendar

EUR 3-y LTRO 530B v previous 489B

ecb scam 2.0...immediate sell off was nice but next uptick was scary, all in all come down and hopefully down continue

Big Ben at 3pm !

It's a mega slow day today on the markets! If it gets any slower I may be forced to go & do some gardening! Even the weeds are growing faster than my portfolio!

Isn't it just! All I want is for the CW. or MCHL bid to appear this afternoon.....

US ISM Manufacturing PMI 52.4 v consensus 54.6 previous 54.1