5 Things you Need to Know Before Trading

Stocks were generally weak in Asian trade. The Nikkei, Australia and Shanghai all lost about 1.5% during the session while the Hang Seng dropped 0.8%. European indexes are also on the back foot, with the Footsie currently off more than one percent and the Dax down by 0.7%. US stock futures are down by about a quarter percent or so.

*The February reading of Australia’s Unemployment Rate was steady at 5.0%, as expected. But, the net change in the number of Employed was down 10.1k and this was forecast to increase by 20k.

*The February reading of China’s Trade Balance was surprisingly a deficit of $7.4 billion, the biggest deficit for any month in seven years. That is down from a trade surplus of $6.45 billion the month before and well below the estimate for a surplus of $4.90 billion. Exports were up only 2.4% from a year ago, but that is down from a 37.7% annualized gain in January and well off the forecast for a gain of 27.1% for February. Imports also showed less of an increase than was expected, this was up 19.4% from last year.

*The final Q4 reading of Japan’s GDP was unrevised at -0.7% on a quarter on quarter basis, but revised down one tenth to -1.3% for the annualized reading.

*The ECB reiterated that inflation risks are on the upside and that strong vigilance on monetary policy is warranted, in their monthly report.

*The Bank of England held rates and QE totals steady at their policy meeting today, as was generally expected.

*The January reading of the UK Industrial Production was up 0.5% on a month on month basis, better than forecast by one tenth.

*Moody’s downgraded Spain’s credit rating and say their outlook is negative.

*The January reading of Germany’s Trade Balance was a surplus of EU7.2 billion; well down from the EU19.3 billion surplus seen in December and less than the EU10.5 billion surplus expected. Exports were down 1.0% on the month, while Imports were up 2.3%.

*The weekly report on Initial Jobless Claims is due out at 7:30am CST, it is expected to be 376k. Also due out at 7:30am CST is the January reading of the Trade Balance, which is forecast to be a deficit of $41.5 billion, up one billion from the month before. At 1:00pm CST the Treasury will report the February reading of their Monthly Budget Statement, it is expected to show a deficit of $225.2 billion.

*The weekly report on inventories of Natural Gas is due out at 9:30am CST, it is expected to show a decline of 78 bcf.

*No Fed buying of Treasuries today, instead the NY Fed will release the next schedule for their buying habit at 1:00pm CST.

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