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

Debating shorting Nikkei, I see Japanese exports to China have fallen with the territorial dispute. DOW down also so it should follow suite...

Tough call Shortie - DOW is showing slightly above its Friday low (13,312.26) and @5 below its close as I type - a day fairly devoid of major news.

Dow has Yahoo and Caterpillar reporting, can't see Yahoo reporting anything but disappointment. Aggreko suffered a broker downgrade also. There are no major data releases until Thursday (UK GDP) and Friday (US GDP) so the indicies will struggle for direction. Lets see if the DOW drifts lower later today which I expect it will. If so I'll look to short the Nikkei which I think has been bucking the trend.

I would agree that the indices are more likely to drift downwards than up, in the absence of any major news. It'll be interesting to see those two results later today - not sure when they'll be released. If they're at all positive, then the DOW will surely want to move up again.

Aapl 557 to me looks like the shorting target.

ah yes; i know you fancy shorting this one too, and you were certainly proved right with GOOG and as you have posted, you already hold a short position in AAPL - we shall see ...... of course, it may be that as a prudent precaution you may close at least part of this (very) profitable position before the numbers are announced

In for a penny, in for a pound at the moment...

As Shortie has pointed out, thurs UK GDP figures are expected to show growth, albeit in a small way. I expect a 'feel good' bounce on thurs, assuming the figures are as good as expected. U.S. figures might be a bit overshadowed by the presidential election charade.

Harry, 0.7% is expected (see the link in post 9142)

Amazing how such a small %age can look so good! (If only my bank manager took the same stance when it comes to interest on my current a/c!). Lets just hope that figure is not just attributable to seasonal / Olympic factors.

Maybe we're out of recession, and some of its due to the extra bank holiday and Olympic factors, blah, blah blah.... But you cant get away from all the profit warnings we've seen...

From the Times
Despite the expected economic rebound, persistent weak growth has damaged companies’ profitability, analysis by accountants Ernst & Young has found.

The number of profit warnings in the third quarter hit its highest level for the three-month period since 2008 due to weak demand and economic uncertainty.

Companies quoted on London’s main market and smaller AIM issued 68 profit warnings in the three months to September, a third more than the same period last year.

Keith McGregor, head of restructuring for Europe, Middle East, India and Africa at Ernst & Young, said: “The underlying weakness of the UK economy and global growth concerns landed the heavier blows to profits and expectations. ”

He said profit warnings were generally lower than pre-crisis levels as market expectations have been set so low, but “when one does make a profit warning, it shows things are really out of step”.

U.S. Stock Futures Advance as Investors Watch Earnings.

By Rita Nazareth - Oct 22, 2012 1:53 PM GMT

U.S. stock futures advanced, following the biggest decline since June in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, as investors watched corporate results.

Peabody Energy Corp. (BTU), the largest U.S. coal producer by
volume, gained 6.8 percent as results beat estimates. Ancestry.com Inc. (ACOM) surged 7.8 percent after Permira Advisers LLP agreed to buy the company in a transaction valued at about $1.6 billion, gaining the world’s largest family-history website. Caterpillar Inc. (CAT), the biggest maker of construction and mining equipment, slid 0.5 percent after forecasting sales growth that is the slowest in four years.

S&P 500 futures expiring in December rose 0.1 percent to 1,426 at 8:52 a.m. New York time. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures added 17 points, or 0.1 percent, to 13,269. The number of shares changing hands in Stoxx Europe 600 Index’s companies was 10 percent below the 30-day average at this time of day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“It really comes down to earnings at this point,” said Peter Jankovskis, co-chief investment officer for Oakbrook Investments in Lisle, Illinois, which manages more than $3 billion. He spoke in a telephone interview. “We’ve seen many companies beating earnings estimates. Yet investors are keeping an eye on their ability to grow revenue.”

Earnings at about 69 percent of S&P 500 companies which reported third-quarter results beat analysts estimates, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Sales missed forecasts at 59 percent of companies, the data showed.

Caterpillar has "lowered its guidance for 2012" - I've not seen any further details.

Yahoo and Texas Instruments are reporting after the Bell apparently.

An update to the above post - U.S. Stocks Little Changed as Investors Watch Earnings

There are numerous reports on Apple (AAPL) this morning, discussing the fiscal Q4 report due Thursday afternoon and discussing the import of the expected introduction tomorrow in San Jose by the company of a smaller version of its iPad.

Shaw Wu of Sterne Agee raised estimates for last quarter, writing we “a modest revenue and EPS beat but believe guidance will likely be vintage conservative.” Wu thinks Apple may have beaten the consensus for 25 million to 26 million iPhone units last quarter, with perhaps 27 million, helped by improved iPhone supply conditions, based on his checks of the supply chain. iPad units may have been less than the consensus of 17 million to 18 million, at perhaps 16.5 million units, as the company prepares for the smaller unit.

And R.W Baird’s William Power writes that his firm’s survey of consumers in September revealed 46% of people would be interested in buying a smaller iPad, but, “Pricing remains the biggest unknown, with the starting sweet spot in the $249-299 range, based on our survey.” Apple’s cheapest iPad is $400. The cheapest iPod Touch sells for $300.

JP Morgan‘s hardware analyst Mark Moskowitz is holding a conference call at 10 am, Eastern, to discuss “the potential impact on Apple, the tablet market, the PC market, and the tech supply chain.”

Speaking of Apple, there are more signs the company is moving away from being a customer of Samsung Electronics (005930KS). The Korea Times’s Cho Mu-hyun and Kim Yoo-chul this morning report that Samsung is ending an LCD supply agreement with Apple, because “it believes its American partner is no longer a cash-generator due to the iPhone maker’s stiffer supply-chain management structure.”

“We are unable to supply our flat-screens to Apple with huge price discounts,” the authors quote Samsung as saying.

Shares of Apple are up $620, or 1%, at $616.04.

Shortie - I take it that last line is a typo :-)

It was a copy and paste jobby, yes, last line isn't correct. Share price doing the opposite to volume on your chart skinny, typical set the price high off the bell, now lets see if it fades as the day progresses. Can't see the Nikkei will be worth the hastle later now..

sharp turnaround at dow towards the death, so it has finished nicely back above 13300

Indeed cynic coming back to test 50DMA fingers crossed.

Anyone know anything about Texas Instruments and Yahoo results yet? - They were due to be published after the Bell, i.e. now