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

an interesting end to the week with US long holiday imminent (wednesday july 4th)

GBP Manufacturing PMI 48.6 consensus 46.6 previous 45.9

USD ISM Manufacturing Prices 37.0 consensus 45.8 previous 47.5

Seeing the FTSE break through 5625 at quarter to three I was just thinking about going long................phew!

Plateman - its coming back - it looks like the yanks want it higher.

Yes I see that Skinny, but I think I'll call it a day now, had a nice touch from the open this morning, don't really want to give it back. :>)

GBP Construction PMI 48.2 consensus 53.1 previous 54.4

GBP Net Lending to Individuals m/m 1.3B consensus 1.1B previous 1.4B

GBP M4 Money Supply m/m -0.1% consensus 1.4% previous 1.1%

GBP Mortgage Approvals 51K consensus 51K previous 52K

Anyone for the Yanks going for 13,000 for independence day?

Yep, went long the DOW @12901, after the Factory Orders data. Thing is to close, or not to close, at end of play today?

Don't forget its July 4th tomorrow.

13000 is likely to give "pause for thought", but once breached, there looks to be plenty of upside

Hmm...and employment data on Thurs. maybe discretion over valour, although DOW dropping back a little now, so will probably be stopped out before one huge surge to 13000 at close. Been there so many times before.

Out of DOW long @ 12922. Taking my ball and going home, as didn't realise U.S. closes at 6:00 P.M. tonight. Will see what thursday brings.

.

A different colour!

EUR Italian Services PMI 43.1 consensus 42.6 previous 42.8

EUR Final Services PMI 47.1 consensus 46.8 previous 46.8

GBP Services PMI 51.3 consensus 52.9 previous 53.3

GBP Housing Equity Withdrawal q/q -8.8B consensus -7.9B previous -8.5B

GBP PPI Input m/m -2.2% consensus -2.1% previous -2.5%

GBP PPI Output m/m -0.4% consensus -0.2% previous -0.2%

Part of a Nomura (Bob Janjuah) note:
".........my expectation remains that this risk-on phase should see the S&P rally over late Q2 and through July, possibly all the way back up to the 1400s, perhaps even setting new cycle highs (around 1450) by late July or early August. In this risk-on phase core bonds should sell-off – I have a 2.35%/2.45% 10yr UST yield target, and I expect the iTraxx Crossover index to rally back below 600bp, maybe even below 550bp by late July or early August.
My stop loss over the next 4-6 weeks while I expect this risk-on phase to play out is simple: a weekly S&P close below 1267 would for me be very bearish and likely change things. But as mentioned, instead I expect to see markets struggle with headlines and volatility, but ultimately climb the wall of worry up towards 1400, perhaps 1450 S&P.

And then? Well, again things are largely unchanged from my April note. Much beyond late July or early August, and assuming we get to 1400/1450 S&P, I then would look to position for an extremely bearish risk-off phase over late August through to November or December. The drivers of this extremely bearish expected phase are not new: overly bullish positioning and sentiment; weak global growth, not just in the eurozone but also in the US and the BRICs; the next leg of crisis in the ongoing eurozone debacle in my view; and of course the looming US fiscal crisis, which in my view is not even ‘slightly’ priced into markets, but where I feel the probability of a crisis is close to 75%. Hopefully by year-end US sell-siders will realise that blaming the eurozone crisis for everything that is going wrong in the US has been a serious error, which has resulted in them being blind-sided to the other real ‘gorilla’s in the room’ – namely the US debt/fiscal weakness, and the hard landings now beginning in the BRICs."

GBP Trade Balance -8.4B consensus -9.0B previous -9.7B

GBP Industrial Production m/m 1.0% consensus -0.1% previous -0.4%