Stocks were generally lower in Asian trade. Shanghai and Australia were both down about a half percent and the Nikkei lost a slight fraction, but the Hang Seng managed a gain of 0.4%. European indexes are a little worse off, with the Dax currently off by about 1.8% and the Footsie lower by about three quarters of a percent. US stock futures are down about two thirds of a percent.*The December reading of China’s service sector PMI was unchanged on the month at 53.1, according to HSBC.
*The final December reading of Germany’s service sector PMI was revised higher by almost one point to 59.2, the same result as November.
*US mortgage application were up 2.3% in the week ended December 31, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Applications for purchase fell 0.8% on the week, but those for Refi rose 3.9%.
*The Challenger Group reports that in December there were 32,004 job cut announcements. The total is down about 16k from the month before and down 29% versus last year. For all of 2010 there were fewer job cut announcements than in any year since 1997.
*ADP will announce their estimate for the net change in December private sector non-farm payrolls at 7:15am CST, it is expected to be +100k. The December reading of the ISM Non-manufacturing Composite Index is due out at 9:00am CST, it is forecast to rise to 55.7 from 55.0 the month before.
*The weekly report on energy inventories is due out at 9:30am CST. Stocks of Crude Oil are forecast to fall 2.0 million barrels, Gasoline inventories are expected to increase 500k and the estimate for Distillates is +750k.
*The Fed is scheduled to buy Treasuries today that are due to mature between 8/15/28 and 11/15/40; the result of the operation will be announced just after 10:00am CST.
*KC Fed boss Hoenig is scheduled to give a speech at noon CST, but it is not clear if there will be any press availability at the luncheon.
No comments:
Post a Comment