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

Those bankers, at least mechanics, dentists, opticians, plumbers, builders, supermarkets, insurers, legal etc. don't rip us off. :)

Cheers,
KidA

Chicago PMI 49.7 consensus 52.9 previous 53.0

BREAKING NEWS: Spain says 7 banks have capital needs, 7 do not; total shortfall is 59.3 billion euros in stressed scenarios

Italian and SPain PMI are both better then expected. Unemployment is slightly lower and EU PMI is the highest Since May.

GBP Manufacturing PMI 48.4 consensus 49.5 previous 49.5

GBP Net Lending to Individuals m/m -0.4B consensus 0.7B previous 0.6B

GBP M4 Money Supply m/m 0.2% consensus 0.7% previous 0.5%

GBP Mortgage Approvals 48K consensus 50K previous 48K

CAD RMPI m/m 3.4% consensus 1.4% previous 0.9%

looks like a good day to top up AAPL, which has been hit of late, ahead of results due within the next 2/3 weeks

Not convinced, I was thinking about shorting APPL.

USD ISM Manufacturing PMI 51.5 consensus 49.8 previous 49.6

in that case Shortie, it looks that you would have called it wrong - or at least at the moment ..... i topped up at 669.50, so no complaints

Cynic - your looking good at the moment, 67310.0 to short at the moment. I've got this on watch so no position just yet!

if i was going to short, i would wait until a day or two before the figures are issued ..... i don't think the date is fixed yet, but i think it's mid/end october ...... even then, a tight guaranteed stop might be wise, as historically AAPL have always come in way above expectations - but not last time!

perhaps i should have bought more GOOG instead :-)

Bank of England to hold fire as economy shows signs of life

LONDON | Mon Oct 1, 2012 5:39pm BST

(Reuters) - The Bank of England is expected to hold off on an extension of its government bond buying programme for at least another month on Thursday and officials' comments, if not economic data, have cast the first doubts on them doing so in November.

Signs are mounting that Britain exited recession in the third quarter, as production bounced back from the hit caused by an extra public holiday in June and ticket sales for the London Olympics are expected to have boosted growth.

Spanish Unemployment Change 79.6K previous 38.2K

GBP Construction PMI 49.5 consensus 50.0 previous 49.0

GBP 10-y Bond Auction 1.76|1.9 previous 1.83|1.8

A tad late :-

USD ADP Non-Farm Employment Change 162K consensus 145K previous 189K

USD ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI 55.1 consensus 53.2 previous 53.7

BoE to leave stimulus unchanged for now

LONDON | Thu Oct 4, 2012 3:12am BST

(Reuters) - The Bank of England will shy away from increasing its economic stimulus programme of government bond purchases on Thursday as the economy is showing some signs of growing again.

But another cash injection later this year remains a safe bet in the eyes of many economists because the recovery looks feeble, government spending cuts continue to weigh, and the dangers from the unresolved euro zone crisis loom large.

Britain probably exited recession in the third quarter as production bounced back from the effect of an extra public holiday in June and as ticket sales for the London Olympics boosted growth.

French 10-y Bond Auction 2.28|2.2 previous 2.21|2.1