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

USD Pending Home Sales m/m 5.2% consensus 0.9% previous 0.3%

Nice to see someone raking the money in bhunt.

The number of U.S. home buyers signing contracts to purchase previously owned properties rose in October to the highest level in nearly six years, marking the latest indication of a recovering housing market. The National Association of Realtors said Thursday its seasonally adjusted index for pending sales of existing homes increased 5.2% in October from a month earlier to a reading of 104.8. The index for October was up 13.2% from the same month last year and have risen for 18 consecutive months compared with a year earlier, the group said. Pending home sales are at the highest level since March 2007, outside of a "few spikes" when buyers were rushing to sign sales contracts to qualify for a federal tax credit, the Realtors said. September's index was revised upward slightly to 99.6. "We've had very good housing affordability conditions for quite some time, but we're seeing more impact now from steady job creation and rising consumer confidence about home buying," said Lawrence Yun, the Realtors' chief economist. The index was far above expectations. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had predicted pending home sales would rise 1.0% from September's figures. The Realtors' index tracks agreements to purchase homes. A sale is considered pending when the contract has been signed but the transaction has not yet closed, and pending sales typically close within one or two months of signing. A reading of 100 is equal to the average level of activity in 2001. The housing market is recovering from a severe downturn, but it remains volatile. Home prices are rising, according to two separate reports earlier this week. Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller home-price index said U.S. home prices in 20 major metropolitan areas were up 3% in September compared with a year earlier. The Federal Housing Finance Agency said U.S. home prices rose 0.2% for the eighth-straight month in September on a seasonally adjusted basis from a month earlier. The FHFA's monthly home price index is calculated by using the prices of houses purchased with mortgages backed by government-controlled mortgage companies Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FMCC). But the numbers come a day after sales of newly built homes in the U.S. slipped in October and September's figures were downwardly revised. New single-family home sales decreased by 0.3% last month from September to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 368,000, the Commerce Department said. The housing market is still well below its peak as sales and construction levels both lag behind prebubble levels and tightened credit restrictions make it difficult to secure a mortgage. Many prospective homeowners have too little home-equity to sell their current residence and buy another home. The Realtors' report Thursday showed pending sales rose in two out of four U.S. regions compared with a month earlier. The index rose 15.6% in the Midwest and 5.5% in the South but dropped 1.1% in the West and 0.1% in the Northeast.

Good Moaening, closed Brent long (for now) @ 110.86 + 100
" " Gold long (" " ) @ 1724.1 + 22

Make your mind up time.

Stopped -25, so anyone else short should be ok now!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

that's me out of ftse for the day but still long dow which i shall watch with interest to see how far back it retrenches when it runs out of steam

Edit:

Well that's some run since yesterday.

Always shakey shorting against the trend but thought we'd have a new cross by now..... 5866.3 closed out -20 pts

And down it bloody well goes - looks like I almost picked the top again for my stop (5876).

a sharp little correction on wall street, but i don't know if there was any trigger ..... i'll almost certainly top up at 12940 if it goes back that far

Should I take a look in the five and ten glistening once again, Flossipops?

As the Dow industrials turn negative, safe-haven Treasurys are drawing a bid as optimism about progress being made on the fiscal cliff quickly fades. Ten-year notes are down just 1/32, yielding, 1.622%, as House Speaker Boehner contends there's been no substantive progress in talks with the White House and that Democrats have yet to get serious about spending cuts.

Short at 12980

Cynic - ironically Hargreaves Lansdown have a just sent me a Household Goods & Home Construction sector overview - which may be of interest to you. I'll try and have a read later.

sounds of interest for sure
also interesting that the lurch on wall street seems to have been very short-lived, whereas just a week ago, the market would have continued sharply south .... such is sentiment

Yet another loss on Wall St tonight...!! Horrible trading at the moment day to day.

India’s GDP growth declines to 5.3% in July-Sept quarter

New Delhi: The Indian economy grew by 5.3 percent in the July-September period of the current financial year (2012-13), pulled down by poor performance of manufacturing and agriculture sectors, showing persistent signs of slowdown.

The gross domestic product (GDP) had expanded by 6.7 percent in the same period of last fiscal.

It had grown by 5.5 percent in the first quarter (April-June) of 2012-13.

Well I'm glad I stayed out of it yesterday, while not at my screen - having read all your comments! I would surely have lost money on the DOW. Can't watch much of today either, but am tempted just to set a short FTSE from 5900

for sure there will be bad days, but the trend now looks to have reversed from its previous gloom