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

shorts being severely spanked today!

Italian Industrial Production m/m -0.7% v consensus 0.2% previous -2.5%

GBP PPI Input m/m 1.9% v consensus 1.2% previous 2.1%


GBP PPI Output m/m 0.6% v consensus 0.5% previous 0.6%

Spain's short-term borrowing costs rise

Spain's short-term borrowing costs rose sharply at an auction on Tuesday.

The rate for 12-month bonds rose to 2.6% from 1.4% at the last auction in March, while 18-month bonds were up from 1.7% to 3.1%.

The sales suggest that rates could rise significantly at a more important sale of 10-year bonds on Thursday.

IMF raises global growth forecast, sees India GDP at 6.9% in 2012

WASHINGTON: Global growth is slowly improving as recovery in the United States gains traction and dangers from Europe recede, but risks remain elevated and the gains are very fragile, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday.


World economy fragile, faces "uneasy calm" - IMF

GBP Claimant Count Change 3.6K v consensus 6.6K previous 7.2K

What does it mean, skinny?

Click on the "detail" icon for the relevant entry - Calendar.

Hi skinny, cynic and co, good to see some old names still about. I used to post on here a few years ago now, but can't for the life of me remember the old handle, so popping in to say 'hi'!

Yes - still here!

cynic still around then? i thought he'd have popped off by now?! Lol! hey cynners, how goes it?!

ok old pal, whoever you are/were ...... currently on biz in dubai but back tomorow evening ..... co-director won't let me retire and i don't think i much want to anyway; have too much fun generally

I can't seem to find the time for the Spanish Bond Auction today - anyone?

Spanish 10-y Bond Auction 5.74|2.4 previous 5.34|3.0

The first number is the average interest rate of the bonds sold, and the second number is the bid-to-cover ratio (number of bids made per bid accepted).

Spain's borrowing costs increase at bond auction

Spain's borrowing costs rose at a debt auction on Thursday, but it managed to sell all of the bonds it was offering.

The 10-year bonds were sold at a yield of 5.743%, up from 5.403% when the bonds were last sold in February.

The rate for two-year bonds dropped slightly to 3.463% from 3.495% in October.

Spain sold all the 2.54bn euros ($3.33bn; £2.08bn) of bonds it was offering, with demand higher than at the previous sale.

"Overall, then, a reasonable set of results which will go some way to allaying fears the domestic bid [demand] for Spanish bonds has dried up," said Richard McGuire, rate strategist at Rabobank.

But he added that: "This support does come at a price".

There had been worries about this week's bond auctions after the interest rates on existing 10-year bonds rose above 6% on Monday.

Borrowing costs above 6% are considered by many analysts to be unaffordable in the long run.

LONDON (Dow Jones)--European stock markets pared gains and Spain's 10-year government bond yield rose on continued concerns about the country's ongoing debt problems, despite initial relief at the auction results.

Spain sold EUR2.54 billion bonds, just above the upper end of the target range though the Spanish Treasury confirmed it paid a higher yield on the 10-year bond than previously.

Although Spain didn't do too badly, the auction size was small and markets had largely priced in that it would be well bid.

Just after the eagerly anticipated auction results, the 10-year Spanish bond yield was 2 basis points higher at 5.82% while June bunds came well off their lows, indicating that investors remain risk averse. In addition, Spain's IBEX-35 index fell to a fresh three-year low of 7027.90 while other stock markets rose sharply and then pared gains as investors fell out of favor with equities.

Jeremy Batstone-Carr chief economist and strategist at Charles Stanley said the initial sigh of relief after the auction results was short lived.

"We assume the majority of the take-up was by Spanish banks and that the latter may have insufficient resource to meet all the remaining debt rolling this year," he said. "Investors note that elevated nervousness ahead of auctions such as today's is likely to remain a feature of the market through 2012 and beyond."

At 0920 GMT, the benchmark Stoxx 600 index was up 0.4% at 258.83. Immediately after the auction, the index rose to around 0.7% but then slid. Spain's IBEX-35 was down 0.4% at 7049.20. Other regional indexes pared gains. London's FTSE 100 was up 0.4% at 5768.79, Frankfurt's DAX increased 0.4% to 6761.21 and Paris's CAC-40 was also 0.4% higher, at 3254.25.

EUR German Ifo Business Climate 109.9 v consensus 109.6 previous 109.8

GBP Retail Sales m/m 1.8% v consensus 0.4% previous -0.8%

Looks like both indices have ended their upward trend.

Are you short HC? FTSE has a very different pattern to the Dow...