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

Banks to admit profits have been wiped out by PPI costs

Three of Britain’s biggest banks will this week admit that billions of pounds of profits have been wiped out by rising claims for mis-selling payment protection insurance (PPI).

Third quarter results by Lloyds Banking Group, the Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays are expected to show that despite advances of the past three months, the banks have been pushed in to the red by the mounting PPI scandal.

Lloyds may have to set aside as much as £2bn against PPI claims pushing its total losses to more than £6bn. Barclays has raised it provisions by £700m.

I've only just seen this.... Apple publishes statement over iPad design row

Apple has published a statement which admits that Samsung has not infringed its designs.

The electronics firm was forced to publish the statement by a UK High Court which ruled on a dispute between the two firms in July.

The ruling also means that Apple has to take out adverts in national newspapers saying that Samsung had not copied its designs.

The statement can be found by following a link from the UK home page of Apple.

oh goody goody :-(

New York Stock Exchange to remain closed today apparently - not surprisingly, with that Storm threatening!

Presumably insurers & underwriters are going to be out of favour with investors over the coming months whilst the hurricane season progresses? IC tipped Marsh (NYSE) (Marsh & McLennan LSE) the other day, but they now have big exposure to the US property market, so maybe not such a good idea!

Microsoft Unveils Latest Windows Phone 8 Seeking Gains

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) will unveil a new version of its software for smartphones today, redoubling an effort to regain market share lost to Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Google Inc. (GOOG)

Nokia Oyj (NOK1V)’s Lumia 920, featuring a 4.5-inch (11-centimeter) screen and an 8.7-megapixel camera, will run on Windows Phone 8. HTC Corp. (2498) will sell two devices -- the Windows Phone 8X and the 8S -- which sport a new design, better audio and a wide-angle camera. Microsoft executives are scheduled to tout new products at an event today in San Francisco.

Reuters at 17:41:
"The U.S. stock market is expected to be closed on Tuesday because of Hurricane Sandy, a source said on Monday.

The decision to close markets for a second straight day because of the storm was made during a call between industry executives and regulators, said one person who was on the call. An official announcement was expected shortly.

Every effort is being made to reopen markets on Wednesday, but a final decision has not been made yet, the source said."

certainly a pal's office in manhattan has already decided to stay closed on tuesday

AAPL
shake-up of its senior management is hardly going to apply balm to the battered sp ...... time to ponder

i'm amazed that cash dow isn't well down ..... though the markets will again be closed today, it's hard to imagine that the effects of the hurricane damage will be viewed with glee

Yes, I have it at @13,055 about -50 from Friday's close.

I agree Cynic - I had thought the markets would be well down. But then with NY closed we could see a delayed reaction later this week

I guess the one thing that is certain, is that there will be a big move one way or the other this/next week - the question is which way!!

my guess is an initial wallop followed by recovery as overall, the markets do not look to want to go south

your idea of going long on the construction sector has to have merit ..... confess i have never looked at betting on sectors before, but could be worth a gentle dabble ..... as an individual stock, WOS ought to be a good bet, but i never ever get that right, so i now avoid it

I can't imagine it's going to be a Storm-inspired surge somehow. I keep seeing reports by analysts talking about a "corrective action" in the next 2-4 weeks, before coming back to buy.
But no doubt there will be other views out there!

confess i have take a small short on dow, but having got just about everything wrong of late, no doubt it will whizz

cynic - I've been long since early August (albeit fairly small), I also hold some safer dividend infrastructure plays through the likes of JLIF & HICL etc.

On edit:-

You could be right with the DOW selling off tomorrow and (hopefully) recovering on an Obama win.

I've just seen this :- U.S. nuclear plant declares "alert" after Sandy storm surge: NRC

NEW YORK | Tue Oct 30, 2012 6:55am GMT

(Reuters) - Exelon Corp declared an "alert" at its New Jersey Oyster Creek nuclear power plant due to a record storm surge, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said, warning that a further water rise could force the country's oldest working plant to use emergency water supplies to cool spent uranium fuel rods.

The alert -- the second lowest of four NRC action levels -- came after water levels at the plant rose by more than 6.5 feet, potentially affecting the pumps that circulate water through the plant, an NRC spokesman said late on Monday.

Echoes of Fukushima!
MarketWatch.com have problems with their site - no doubt power outages

almost akin to minor earthquake in patagonia; no casualties reported