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

.

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

watch out 5935.. may be swallowed easly..high beta asos is taking off highs ...means lot of money ready to push market higher..

US jobless claims up 46,000

Good IMO.

Not sure:
Claims of 367K expected this time around, vs 339K previously - a difference of 28,000 so quite a bit higher

More data due at 15:00

USD Philly Fed Manufacturing Index 5.7 consensus 1.3 previous -1.9

No wonder the DOW had a little surge!

long sp at 1456..dow looks more not in back foot as yesterday so together may challenge 1463's

got out 1464..enough..:)

8 points????????? ...... even at £100 pp it's barely worth the effort

GOOG ...... mega ouch!! ...... dreadful numbers just announced

Announced or rumoured?

GOOG trading halted at -9%

announced ..... here's some of it

Third-quarter earnings came in at $9.03 per share on $11.33 billion in revenue. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were looking for Google to earn $10.65 a share on $11.862 billion in revenue for the third quarter, up from $9.72 a share on $7.51 billion in sales in the year-ago quarter.