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'm short the DOW from @12,815 earlier - probably should have closed it with the others - time will tell.

On a slightly different note, I used to trade RBS daily when it was @£20. Since consolidation, it is again becoming quite tradeable intraday.

Out of DOW now also.

GBP CPI y/y 2.8% v consensus 3.0% previous 3.0%

GBP RPI y/y 3.1% v consensus 3.3% previous 3.5%

GBP Core CPI y/y 2.2% v consensus 2.3% v previous 2.1%

GBP HPI y/y 1.4% v consensus -0.1% v previous -0.4%

CAD Wholesale Sales m/m 1.5% consensus 0.4% previous 0.4%

USD Building Permits 0.78M consensus 0.73M previous 0.72M

USD Housing Starts 0.71M consensus 0.72M previous 0.72M

The 'surface' effect?

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GBP Claimant Count Change 8.1k consensus -3.1K previous -13.7K

GBP MPC Meeting Minutes 0-0-9 consensus 0-0-9 previous 0-0-9

GBP Unemployment Rate 8.2% consensus 8.2% previous 8.2%

GBP Average Earnings Index 3m/y 1.4% consensus 0.8% previous 0.6

Apple, Google to face off in key smartphone hearing

(Reuters) - Apple Inc will try to salvage a high-profile lawsuit against Google Inc's Motorola Mobility unit on Wednesday at a crucial hearing in the smartphone patent wars between the two tech companies.

Greece coalition deal 'expected soon'

The head of the small Greek Democratic Left party says he expects a deal later on Wednesday on a new coalition government, which he will support.

"We decided to give a vote of confidence to the government that will be formed," Fotis Kouvelis said.

He was speaking after talks with the conservative election winner Antonis Samaras, Reuters news agency reports.

New Democracy, led by Mr Samaras, is expected to lead the coalition, which may also include the centre-left Pasok.

Mr Samaras's three-day mandate to form a government expires on Wednesday.

Maybe a bit of weakness in the FTSE, not much though, on it's way back to 5900-6000 with the £ also heading back to 161. Yup

German PMI figures @8:30.

Skinny, what was it?

GBP Retail Sales m/m 1.4% consensus 1.1% previous -2.3%


On edit:- Ahoj - German Flash Manufacturing PMI 44.7 consensus 45.3 previous 45.2


Link here

Spain's borrowing costs hit fresh highs

Spanish bond yields hit a 16-year high on Thursday amid calls for eurozone ministers gathering in Luxembourg to back plans to reduce government borrowing costs.

Madrid sold 2.2bn euros (£1.7bn) of bonds repayable in two, three and five years.

The yield on 5-year bonds rose to 6.07% from 4.96% in May, and went up to 5.54% on three year bonds from 4.87%.

On Monday, the yield on benchmark ten year debt hit a record high of 7.3%.

CAD Core Retail Sales m/m -0.3% consensus 0.2% previous 0.1%

CAD Retail Sales m/m -0.5% consensus 0.3% previous 0.4%

USD Unemployment Claims 387k consensus 381K previous 386K

Spanish banks need up to 62bn euros

An independent audit of Spain's banks has found that they will need up to 62bn euros (£50bn) in extra funding.

15590-1.5600 probably a key level on the £/$. Markets softer than I expected today, haven't changed my bullish stance, but tomorrow is another day.

German Ifo Business Climate 105.3 consensus 106.1 previous 106.9

Something that might put oil prices up a bit : is the fact of the hurricane season approaching......nothing in sight yet, but seas warming up, with plenty of blue sky out there....