3 Things To Know Before Trading

Stocks were again mixed in Asian trade. The Nikkei and Australia both gained about 0.4%, but the Hang Seng fell 0.3% and Shanghai was once more closed for the holiday. European indexes are generally little changed on the session, with the Footsie off by 0.2% while the Dax has slight gain. US stock futures are essentially unchanged.

*China’s central bank raised their one year lending and deposit rates by 25 basis points earlier today; effective on Wednesday. They also raised the Reserve Requirement by fifty basis points to 19.00%. This is the third rate hike from the PBOC since mid-October.

*The December reading of Japan’s Current Account Balance was a surplus of Y1,530 billion, up about thirty percent from a year ago and slightly better than forecast.

*The December reading of Germany’s Industrial Production was -1.5%, well below the expectation for a gain of 0.2%.

*The January reading of Switzerland’s Unemployment Rate was steady at 3.5%, matching the forecast.

*The January reading of the NFIB Small Business Optimism Index rose 1.5 points to 94.1, the best result since December 2007. However, the Plan to Hire category fell to 3% in January from 6% the month before.

*The weekly report on chain store sales from ICSC showed an increase of 2.2% on a week on week basis for the week ended February 5. The Johnson Redbook report on the same thing is due out at 7:55am CST.

*Richmond Fed boss Lacker is scheduled to speak on the economy at 7:45am CST. Also on the calendar today are Atlanta Fed boss Lockhart, who will begin talking at noon, and Dallas Fedster Fisher who is set to speak at 12:30am CST.

*The February reading of the IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index is due out at 9:00am CST, it is expected to be50.3, down a bit from 51.9 in January.

*The Fed is scheduled to buy Treasuries today that are due to mature between 8/15/28 and 11/15/40; the results of the operation will be announced just after 10:00am CST.

*The Treasury plans to sell $32 billion 3 Year Notes today, the results of the auction will be announced just after noon CST.

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