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

GBP Claimant Count Change -4.0k consensus -0.2K previous -15.0K

GBP MPC Meeting Minutes 0-0-9 consensus 0-0-9 previous 0-0-9

GBP Unemployment Rate 7.9% consensus 8.1% previous 8.1%

GBP Average Earnings Index 3m/y 1.7% consensus 1.6% previous 1.5%

Ahoj: Intel on its own may not be as important these days, but:

'The tech sector is closely monitored as it is viewed as a proxy for business spending.
On Wednesday, Intel shares fell 2.5 percent to $21.79 in premarket while IBM lost 3.3 percent to $204. Both firms are Dow components.' [Reuters]

There'll be some economic news from the US at 13:30 today I think - Housing Starts and Building Permits.

I've just been filled on a FTSE short that's been in for a week @5,602 - I'm not sure that's such a smart move given the BP news.

Toya,
Considering that Apple, Google, etc have much higher weighting and the good news from China, UK and Europe, there is not much appetite to short.

Many of shorts have to be closed given BP news. BAC results was good as well.

All in all, the trend is positive, IMO.

Skinny - I hope don't mean you've shorted from 5620... (no, I'm sure it's a typo). I removed a short I'd placed at 5900 earlier in the week - I'm going to see what the afternoon brings.

I also think the US is looking out for results from Bank of America today.

Interesting news about BP!

Sorry - 5,902! :-)

US Building Permits +11.6%

US Housing Starts +15%

Looking good

Skinny, Have u closed yet?

I actually closed a while ago @5,897 - although its not looking such a bad entry point atm.

well done. It was tricky though.

'U.S. stocks edged lower on Wednesday as solid housing data was outweighed by weakness in technology stocks after disappointing results from IBM and Intel.'

Still, I think in the end the Housing Data will win the day and so have gone long on the Dow - and the Ftse for now

I'm getting a little scared at these dizzy heights of the Ftse and have taken a modest profit at 5912. May set up a short shortly.

Nasdaq & Dow both flat atm - Intel -2.7%

.

China growth pace slows as global economy stays fragile

China's economic growth slowed further in the third quarter as the European debt crisis and a weak recovery in the US economy hurt demand for its goods.

The economic grew 7.4% in the three months to the end of September compared with a year earlier, down from a 7.6% growth rate in the previous quarter.

However, other data released showed a jump in factory output, retail sales and investment in September.

Analysts said the data indicated that China's economy may be stabilising.

YTD.

its got 5935 to headbutt first... then woosh..

Reckon we're due a bit of a pull-back first, so have gone short from 5910. We're very close to the top of the Bollinger band and I'm altogether feeling a little nervous.

GBP Retail Sales m/m 0.6% consensus 0.4% previous -0.1%

EUR Spanish 10-y Bond Auction 5.46|1.9 previous 5.67|2.8

Retail sales are good. I'm still nervous though, about going long at these levels