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

Italy's pays more at 3-year bond sale after Spanish cut

MILAN | Thu Oct 11, 2012 11:31am BST

(Reuters) - Italy paid more than last month to sell three-year bonds at auction on Thursday, with investors unnerved by a credit downgrade that pushed Spain to within a notch of a 'junk' rating.

Rome's borrowing costs rose to 2.86 percent from 2.75 percent at a similar sale in September, halting a four-month run of declining yields.

But demand was solid and the yields remained well below a peak of 5.3 percent in June, a month before European Central Bank head Mario Draghi engineered a drop in peripheral sovereign borrowing costs with a pledge to protect the euro.

"Markets are taking Standard and Poor's two-notch downgrade of Spain in their stride and continue to perceive the euro zone's problems as mostly country-specific, thus helping Italy differentiate itself from Spain," said Nicholas Spiro, director at Spiro Sovereign Strategy.

USD Trade Balance -44.2B consensus -44.1B previous -42.0B

USD Unemployment Claims 339k consensus 368K previous 367K

USD Import Prices m/m 1.1% consensus 0.7% previous 0.7%

i think we may see some rumbustious rocking and rolling in the aisles in usa this afternoon ...... could well be that the bears of both GOOG and AAPL find themselves squealing a bit

U.S. Appeals court reverses injunction against Samsung's Galaxy Nexus Smartphone in patent fight with Apple

how very dull of them!

Cynic: what's worse than finding a worm in your Apple?

Answer: half a worm... I hope you've taken your profits!

i'm afraid i'm sitting on a bit of a loss on dow at the moment, but nothing nasty
did you watch the prog on india last night? ..... very interesting and gives one a rather different perspective on many things

Sitting on a loss Cynic? I'm not surprised if you're using 400 point stops.

Shoot the guru :-)

No, I didn't see the programme about India - I was watching a very interesting programme on Chinese porcelain. So much going on the Far East and I know so little about it!

The DOW does seem to be losing ground at the moment. Have to say I'm short FTSE - just don't trust all the hype I hear!

The good ol Dow Jones will finish blue tomorrow, by at least +50 pts.

Just a guess, I guess, but the trend hasn't been broken (yet).

Prog on India was mainly about Kolkata, which is probably one of the poorest and most congested of indian cities. Sanjeev Baskar went to Bangalore on his journey round India recently and the glass, steel and technology put london in the shade!

Recent comment on the US jobless figures make a bit of a mockery of the stats;
"The US saw mixed results on Thursday, with stocks initially boosted by jobless data, which showed a fall to levels not seen in over four years, but then dampened by confusion over its accuracy.

It was widely reported that the figures have been significantly distorted by seasonal factors, with one equity strategist reportedly saying claims should in fact have been 30,000 higher.

Others have suggested that the decline was due to one of the larger states delaying its re-certification process, which ties in with the fact that the majority of other states reported an unadjusted increase in claims.".

Thanks for that clarification Harrycat. I hadn't quite trusted those 'best in four years' figures when they were released - can't help feeling it's all part of the electioneering process

And if it is all part of the electioneering process Toya, what difference does it make to your trading?

Are you saying that in your opinion the figs are manufactured therefore it's a short?

It doesn't matter what little old us think, it's a long whilst it's going up and it's a short when it's going down.

Right now it's a long until the trend is broken. You're trading on what you think rather than what you see.

It could all change very quickly tomorrow, but the Dow has some unfinished business. Futs up +19 right now.

Hi Chuckles: FTSE may have been "up +19 right now", but was still below my short from 5860, having closed an earlier short at that point from 5900 to bank my profit.

I'm seeing something of a downward trend since mid-September. But then maybe that's just me, getting into pessimistic mood as we approach winter? My plan is to keep the short running until around the end of October and then see where we are. I don't have time to sit and watch it all hour-by-hour currently.

As for the DOW: I have noticed that the FTSE hasn't kept up with it in recent weeks. Since mid-September, the DOW has actually hit an even higher-high on more than one occasion, while the FTSE has kept well below 5900.

Just my observations...

Europe uneasy in IMF spotlight as Tokyo meetings start

TOKYO | Fri Oct 12, 2012 6:08am BST

(Reuters) - Greece, Spain and the euro zone's slow progress toward debt reform took centre stage at IMF meetings on Friday despite Europe's best effort to remove itself from the spotlight.

The International Monetary Fund recommended that some of Europe's debt-burdened countries take a bit more time to reduce budget deficits, arguing that moving too fast is counter-productive because it hurts the economy.

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The shift was welcomed by some emerging market countries as well as long-time critics who say that the tough conditions attached to IMF loans inflict undue economic pain and make it harder for countries to grow their way out of debt.

"We have been arguing for some time that single-minded and draconian fiscal policies may be counterproductive and have a tendency to backfire," said Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega.

But Germany, Europe's largest creditor country and the key to any lasting fiscal reforms, pushed back against that advice and said reversing course on promised deficit reductions would only weaken credibility.

Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Europe had made plenty of crisis-fighting progress, echoing comments from other European officials who said there should be greater attention paid to U.S. fiscal troubles too.

"Europe is not the source of all problems in the world," he told reporters at a briefing on Friday.

Well done on the profitable trade Toya and you're right, the Ftse hasn't followed the Dow to new highs but if you overlay it's performance over the Dow they're quite similar, as you would expect. Try not to forget that whilst you're shorting, billions of dollars, euros and yen across the globe is being printed and pumped into the markets. Who knows how they're going to unwind all ths QE!

Spain says no resistance in euro zone to an aid request

TOKYO | Fri Oct 12, 2012 7:36am BST

(Reuters) - Spain's economy minister said on Friday there was absolutely no political resistance from within the euro zone to a Spanish bailout request.

Asked if Spain wanted more political clarity rather than technical details before taking a decision on an aid request, Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said: "absolutely not."

"There was no pressure, in one sense or in the other," he said.

JPMorgan Profit Beats Estimates as Mortgage Revenue Soars

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), the biggest U.S. bank by assets, posted a record third-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates as mortgage revenue soared 72 percent.
Net income rose 34 percent to $5.71 billion, or $1.40 a share, from $4.26 billion, or $1.02, a year earlier, the New York-based company said today in a statement. Earnings, which included a loss on accounting adjustments, beat the average estimate of $1.20 among 30 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

somewhat surprisingly and indeed worryingly, it has not inspired cash dow greatly