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

.

I'm out for now - it's just hovering about.

Next impetus should be when, eventually, Spain formally request their bailout.

German Flash Manufacturing PMI 47.3 consensus 45.4 previous 44.7

German Flash Services PMI 50.6 consensus 48.5 previous 48.3

The main bad news is overnight from China.

Reuters:
"European equities fell early on Thursday as weak Chinese manufacturing data reignited global growth concerns, hitting miners, while euro zone banks continued to trim recent gains on uncertainty about if and when Spain would apply for a bailout."

quite glad to see a correction as it has been hovering in the wings for a while ..... though it's superficially quite painful, the markets remain firmly in an up-trend

Add in a bit of - Japan exports and imports fall raising growth concerns

Japan's exports and imports dipped in August, raising fears about the impact of a global slowdown on its economy.

Exports fell 5.8% from a year earlier, hurt by slowing demand from the European Union (EU) and China.

Imports fell 5.4% from a year ago, indicating that domestic demand continues to remain weak.

The data comes amid fears that Japan's trade with China, its biggest trading partner, may be hurt by the continuing territorial dispute between them.

GBP Retail Sales m/m -0.2% consensus -0.3% previous 0.3%

Spanish 10-y Bond Auction 5.67%|2.8 previous 6.65%|2.4

Overnight Dow short as a hedge against long positions closed shortly after the open this morning, no need to do anything else today except add to Xel position

CBI Industrial Order Expectations -8 consensus -14 previous -21

USD Unemployment Claims 382K consensus 374K previous 385K

Yeah, not great. Other news to come today - reckon the US market is looking for a reason to pick up again.

"The Markit Flash US Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index was unchanged at 51.5 in September, indicating only a modest improvement in US manufacturing business conditions.

The preliminary flash PMI reading, which is based on around 85% of usual monthly replies, remained only fractionally higher than the near three-year low recorded in June."

Not great either really

Lets see what the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia brings us at 3pm

There's also Dennis Lockhart from the FOMC about to speak, at 14:30 I think

Yes - from the Forex site :-

"Federal Reserve FOMC members vote on where to set the nation's key interest rates and their public engagements are often used to drop subtle clues regarding future monetary policy;"

... :)

Retailers fuel recovery hopes with stronger order books

LONDON | Thu Sep 20, 2012 2:24pm BST


(Reuters) - Britain's retailers performed better than feared during the Olympics in August and manufacturers' order books improved this month, bolstering hopes that the economy is creeping out of recession even though dangers still loom large.

Retail sales dipped 0.2 percent in August as Britons abandoned online shopping to watch the Olympics on television, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said on Thursday. That was better than a 0.4 percent drop forecast by a Reuters poll.

Euro zone business decline grinds on despite ECB action - PMI


LONDON | Thu Sep 20, 2012 11:52am BST

(Reuters) - The European Central Bank's aggressive new bond-buying plan has so far failed to inspire any major improvement in business at ailing euro zone companies, unexpectedly gloomy surveys showed on Thursday.

The downturn in activity in the euro zone's service sector steepened this month at the fastest pace since July 2009, Markit's purchasing managers indexes (PMIs) showed, with French companies performing particularly poorly.

Philly Fed Manufacturing Index -1.9 consensus -4.1 previous -7.1

Hey - that should get things moving hopefully?