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

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%

13005 and 5710 are the key resistance targets to bust

German 10-y Bond Auction 1.31|1.5 previous 1.52|1.4

I guess this caused the spike @9:15.

India :- Industrial production grows at 2.4% in May

NEW DELHI: Country's industrial production grew at a higher-than-expected pace of 2.4 per cent in May driven by manufacturing output, government data showed on Thursday.

Analysts had expected a rise of 1.8 per cent in May output, a Reuters poll showed.

The May figure compares with revised figures that showed an annual contraction of 0.9 per cent a month ago.

dow has taken it's customary dip on bernake's speech, albeit that it was as expected ..... i dare say some were actually hoping for more qe against the odds

Bernanke says Fed prepared to do more to boost jobs

WASHINGTON | Tue Jul 17, 2012 3:46pm BST
(Reuters) - The Federal Reserve stands ready to offer additional monetary support to a U.S. economy that has slowed significantly in recent months, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told lawmakers on Tuesday.

He told the Senate Banking Committee the recovery was being held back by tighter financial conditions due to Europe's debt crisis and uncertainty surrounding U.S. fiscal policy.

Financial markets had looked forward to Bernanke's testimony for any signs the central bank was moving closer to a third round of bond purchases to support the economy. But the Fed chief hewed closely to the message of watchful waiting that the central bank's policy panel delivered in June, and yielded few new clues.

GBP Claimant Count Change 6.1K consensus 6.2K previous 8.1K

GBP Unemployment Rate 8.1% consensus 8.2% previous 8.2%

Wait for it - you know who is speaking @3pm.

Ben not having his usual effect on the market today. Have they turned his mic on!