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

why on earth would you buy TPL? .... i was merely making an observation about Nexen

as for buying, i topped up with some more AAPL - numbers due after the close tomorrow

good to see at least a partial recovery in US ..... now dow ONLY 135 after about 200 - and AAPL showing blue now too! :-)

don't say i didn't tell you ..... meanwhile, dow recovers ever more and is now scarcely -100 .... not bad one way and another

serves me right .... AAPL's numbers are rubbish so have been bitten in the bum! .... unfortunately, those numbers are likely to affect dow's overall performance too

Bad luck cynic - "Net income jumped 21 percent from a year earlier to $8.8 billion, or $9.32 a share, about 10 percent below expectations."

Apple blames rare miss on new iPhone anticipation, economy

may bite at least some of the bullet later ..... i guess it will depend on how the market perceives the future

interesting to see that cash dow was off about 100 points, presumably on the back of those results, but now only down about half that

Really sorry you got burnt cynic.

I reckon the market will perceive the future as very dull indeed, until the Fed acts on its plans for further QE - and even that seems more like a short-term sugar rush.

good morning Mistress T
confess good figures were a much stronger racing bet than the likes of BOR and even FOGL finding oil!
anyway, it remains to be seen how badly the market reacts .... as far as i can see, it was more the analysts forecasts that were missed than AAPL's own guidance

by the way, will you be posting a pic of yourself her in full summer gardening attire?

I think the markets were also concerned last night about the result from UPS, which paint a rather gloomy outlook. The likes of UPS and FedEx are reckoned to give a pretty good indication of what is happening in business generally.

And then of course there's the continuing Europe Saga...

As for my gardening attire - I won't be needing too much of that, if the sun keeps shining!

you must show us all now that you have managed to abandon the galoshes at least

This may cheer the markets:

"European Central Bank Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny said there are arguments for giving Europe's permanent rescue fund a banking licence."

Nowotny heads Austria's central bank - we Austrians have some sense!

German Ifo Business Climate 103.3 consensus 104.8 previous 105.3

GBP Prelim GDP q/q -0.7% consensus -0.2% previous -0.3%

US new-home sales fall 8.4%

one way or another, considering TLW took and even worse and unwarranted pasting than AAPL, it wasn't too bad a day

cynic - hopefully AAPL fall a bit overdone? (off the lows atm @579).

Not sure what caused that spike.




Maybe mario has saved the day!

Spain not mulling seeking further EU help: sources

MADRID | Thu Jul 26, 2012 11:20am BST
(Reuters) - Spain is not considering seeking immediate help from the European Union to ease its spiralling borrowing costs, two Spanish sources said on Thursday, although the euro zone is eyeing possible action for later this year.

Weak lending adds pressure for ECB action

FRANKFURT | Thu Jul 26, 2012 11:53am BST
(Reuters) - Lending to euro zone firms and consumers fell in June, feeding fears the bloc is set to return to recession and adding to the European Central Bank's list of concerns as it mulls its options to get the ailing economy back on track.

i see FB has been absolutely slammed on its results ..... dropped 8.5% during hours and a further 9.5% after hours with the numbers