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

Got a small short running on the Dow from about 10 mins ago. Good job as it happen because I'd mistakenly gone long earlier. Spotted my mistake though and escaped with a £2.50 loss. Not sure this trade will come good either, but it's looking more short than long at the mo.

Dow short closed for 20 points, may well drop more before the close but hit the target so that's that for the night, wont be tempted back in

GBP Claimant Count Change -5.9k consensus 6.2K previous 6.1K

GBP Unemployment Rate 8% consensus 8.1% previous 8.1%

Investors awaiting a U.S. report on industrial production (14.15 hrs BST).

“If we see better economic data out of the U.S., it can’t be excluded that further Fed stimulus won’t come anytime soon, which could disappoint some investors,” said Christoph Riniker, head of strategy research at Julius Baer Group Ltd. in Zurich. “One must also say that after the positive price developments in recent weeks, a bit of a breather on the markets makes sense.”

USD Core CPI m/m 0.1%n consensus 0.2% previous 0.2%

USD CPI m/m 0% consensus 0.2% previous 0.0%

USD Empire State Manufacturing Index -5.9 consensus 6.6 previous 7.4

USD Industrial Production m/m 0.6% consensus 0.5% previous 0.4%

minor resistance for dow at 13200 ..... stalled there a few days ago, but may be having another crack at it ...... expect more strong action once that is breached

GBP Retail Sales m/m 0.3% consensus 0.0% previous 0.8%

USD Building Permits 0.81M consensus 0.77M previous 0.76M

USD Unemployment Claims 366K consensus 365K previous 361K

USD Philly Fed Manufacturing Index -7.1 consensus -4.7 previous -12.9

Thanks Skinny - you're very good at posting all the latest data!
Sort of middling then?

Yep - still undecided if "we are there yet"!

Toying with 13,200 again.

Yes I was noticing that. I wonder if it will expire at this point, and retrench? Could go either way from here ... think I'll wait awhile

Looks like it wants to hang on up there. I hope Cynic is awake...

Unleashing facebook shares going well (not) - currently -6.1%.

i don't need to be awake for i placed my bet when the index broke firmly through 13005 - as i intimated at the time
come to to think of it, i then took the profit as a precaution but bought back in again at a slightly higher level - 12274 for those doubters of my integrity

I'd estimate another 80 points or so to at least match the April high.

I suppose it should retrace a bit from there, but who knows, could fool everyone and make a new high for 2012, which in itself is weird.

confess i now have the luxury problem of when to take profits

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