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

USD CB Consumer Confidence 62.0 consensus 63.8 previous 64.4

Government cancels planned 3p fuel duty increase

The government will not go ahead with a 3p-a-litre rise in fuel duty in August, Chancellor George Osborne has announced.

The move follows a campaign by road users' groups, who argued the change, announced in the Budget, would damage the economy.

Fuel duty will be frozen for the rest of the year, the chancellor told MPs.

Labour had threatened to force a House of Commons vote on the issue.

My last prediction on the Ftse was very badly timed (ok, crap) and unsure now ast o what direction the markets are going short term. Still confident £|$ has further upside, about 400 points upside.

The tablet market is getting interesting!

Google to unveil tablet at conference: report

(Reuters) - Google Inc plans to unveil a $199 tablet co-branded with Tawian's Asustek Computer Inc at its developer conference this week, taking direct aim at Apple Inc's iPad, Bloomberg reported, citing two people familiar with the matter.

Rumors that the search engine giant planned to launch a tablet at its annual developer conference have been doing the rounds in tech blog posts for weeks.

The 7-inch tablet, running Android mobile software, will showcase new features of Android, according to one person, who said the latest version of the software is named Jellybean, Bloomberg reported.

My wife surprised me this morning, she has noticed that practically every actor on the television programme 'Neighbours' and 'Home and Away' advertise 'Apple' blatently.i-pad, mac etc. Opened my eyes as to the strength of the brand, so good luck Google. :O)

Is that the old "I don't watch it - wife does it and tells me" :-)

Absolutely skinny, Wimbledon as you know has started this week and as an avid fan (my wife that is) takes priority over the soaps which are recorded (yippeee). So she has played catch up this morning. Just struck me that someone who has no interest in stocks and shares whatsoever should make the observation. :O)

:-)

Yes, and Apple don't pay for product placement either! http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-05-10/apple-the-other-cult-in-hollywood

Queen's jubilee boosts retail sales in June: CBI

(Reuters) - British retail sales rose at the fastest pace in 1-1/2 years in June as Britons splashed out for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations, a survey by the

Confederation of British Industry showed on Wednesday.

The CBI distributive trades survey's sales balance jumped to +42 versus +21 in May, its highest since December 2010, confounding expectations for a sharp slowdown to +10.

German Unemployment Change 7K consensus 4K previous 0K

Average yield on 10-year bonds the Italian government sold at auction was 6.19% (previous 6.03%). Bid to cover 1.3 (1.4).

i see the american pundits are piling on the gloom about the eurozone

Possibly just driving down the markets cynic, so that the DOW can rebound and they can cash in their profits. I read somewhere that the expectations of the EU Summit are so low, that any positive indications will be welcome and send the markets rocketing!

That was some leap - DOW currently @12,584. FTSE showing 5,525.

and now just broken back through 12600, so perhaps even heading to finish +

Mistress T .... sure glad i'm off to provence on hol tomorrow ..... frazzled brain (not market related) so will do lots of walking in les alpilles

UK banks braced for new mis-selling scandal

LONDON | Thu Jun 28, 2012 7:42pm BST

(Reuters) - The Financial Services Authority will announce on Friday it has found evidence banks mis-sold interest rate swaps to protect companies against a rise in borrowing costs, a source familiar with the situation said.

Perhaps time to nationalize the banks. They are just getting a joke.

.

Tomorrow nice open