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

Should be o.k. today, imo as there is a only a 10 yr U.S. bond auction today which should go without a hitch. Thursday may be a bit different as U.S. unemployment claims figures will be released, but not really much on the immediate horizon to dent confidence that I can see. (Maybe next tues when U.S. retail sales figures are out?)

Early downside probably due to a raft of heavy weight Ex dividends today.

Yes, a little money back from BT to swell the coffers! ;o)

How about STAN - ex dividend today and up 55.5 as I type.

Yes, but that assumes that you bought after the bad news & the sp tanked! Win, win if you did!

Harry - I traded it 3 times yesterday against a SIPP holding - not a comfortable day, but Ok in the end.

skinny - mine was merely precautionary .... the longer term prognosis for dow remains very strong, but the indices are very much for trading .... meanwhile, i continue to hold amzn, goog and aapl over the pond

cynic - I agree.

Further to post 8684 above - I do think facebook has lost the plot and is looking desperate.

i don't like FB as a product so would never buy into it

BoE slashes UK medium-term growth outlook

LONDON | Wed Aug 8, 2012 10:32am BST

(Reuters) - The Bank of England has sharply cut its forecast for medium-term growth in Britain's economy due to worries that factors hurting growth since the financial crisis may be more long-lasting than first thought.

In its quarterly Inflation Report, the Bank said that growth in two years time was likely to be around 2 percent a year, down sharply from the forecast of 2.67 percent just three months ago.

This marks a break with previous Bank forecasts, which have usually shown strong rebounds in growth, even after short-term weakness.

German 10-y Bond Auction 1.42|1.8 previous 1.31|1.5

German Industrial Production m/m -0.9% consensus -0.8% previous 1.6%

USD Prelim Nonfarm Productivity q/q 1.6% consensus 1.5% previous -0.9%

USD Prelim Unit Labor Costs q/q 1.7% consensus 0.5% previous 1.3%

GBP Trade Balance -10.1B consensus -8.5B previous -8.4B

all very much running out of puff ..... hardly surprising after such a strong run

French Industrial Production m/m 0.0% consensus 0.4% previous -1.9%

GBP PPI Input m/m 1.3% consensus 1.4% previous -2.2%

GBP PPI Output m/m 0.0% consensus 0.1% previous -0.4%

I reckon weak data from China will probably cause the markets to pause, and maybe fall.

... unless, of course, we hear some more ECB rhetoric

CAD Employment Change -30.4k consensus 9.6K previous 7.3K

CAD Unemployment Rate 7.3% consensus 7.2% previous 7.2%

USD Import Prices m/m -0.6% consensus 0.1% previous -2.7%