3 Things to Know For Today's Trading

Stocks were generally lower in Asian trade, with some exceptions. The Nikkei and Australia both traded down by two thirds of a percent, but the Hang Seng was unchanged Shanghai added a quarter percent. There are mixed results so far in Europe, but the Dax is up about 0.4% and the Footsie has a slight gain as well. US stock futures are down a slight fraction.

*China data out over night included the March readings on a year over year basis for: Retail Sales +16.3%, a couple tenths below forecast; Industrial Production +14.8%, eight tenths more than expected; Consumer Price Index +5.4%, up a half percent from the month before and a couple of tenths more than forecast: and the Producer Price Index up one tenth on the month to +7.3%. Also released was the Q1 reading of GDP, it was +9.7% on a year on year basis; that is down one tenth from the previous quarter, but up three tenths from the forecast.

*The final February reading of Japan’s Industrial Production was revised up to +1.8% from a previous report of +0.4%.

*Earlier this morning Moody’s downgraded Ireland’s debt rating to Baa3 from Baa1; outlook remains negative.

*The March reading of the Eurozone Consumer Price Index is +2.7% on a year over year basis, one tenth more forecast and also a tenth up from a month ago.

*The February reading of the Eurozone Trade Balance was a deficit of EU2.4 billion, less of a deficit than the –EU3.6 billion forecast.

*The March reading of the Consumer Price Index is due out at 7:30am CDT. Headline CPI is expected to rise 0.5% on the month and the estimate for the Core rate is +0.2% from the month before. The annualized rates are forecast to be +2.6% and +1.2%, respectively. Also due out at 7:30am is the April reading of the Empire State Manufacturing Index, which is expected to be 17.00, down a half point on the month. The Treasury will at 8:00am CDT announce the net change in foreign holdings of long-term US securities for February, the TIC data; it is forecast to be an increase of $40.0 billion. The March readings of Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization are due to be released at 8:15am CDT. Production is expected to be up 0.6% on the month and the estimate for Cap Ut is 77.4%, up four tenths from the February result. The preliminary April reading of consumer sentiment from the University of Michigan is due out at 8:55am CDT, it is expected to be 69.0, up a bit from 67.5 in March.

*The Fed is scheduled to buy Treasuries today that are due to mature between 4/30/15 and 9/30/16; the results of the operation will be announced just after 10:00am CDT.

*There are two Fed speakers on the calendar today: Chicago Fed’s Evans is set to speak at 10:15am CDT at the Minsky Conference in NYC and Kansas City Fed boss Hoenig will discuss the economy at Purdue University at 12:30pm CDT.

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