*Stocks were mixed in Asian trade. The Nikkei was up more than one and a half percent and Australia had a slight gain, but the Hang Seng fell about one third of a percent. Shanghai was closed for a holiday. European indexes are generally higher on the session with the Dax up almost 0.8% and the Footsie up a slight fraction. US stock futures are up a bit more than a half percent.*Osama Bin Laden was captured and killed in Pakistan yesterday and has been buried at sea, US President Obama reports.
*Greek Fin Min reportedly says there must be no debt restructuring for his country.
*The final April reading of Germany’s manufacturing sector Purchasing Managers Index was revised up three tenths to 62.0, just a few tenths below the multi-year high set in February.
*The March reading of Swiss Retail Sales is -0.2% on a year on year basis, down sharply from the +1.8% increase seen in February.
*The April reading of Switzerland’s Purchasing Managers Index was 58.4, down nine tenths from the month before and short of the forecast for a gain of five tenths.
*The April reading of the ISM Manufacturing Index is due out at 9:00am CDT; it is expected to be 59.5, down from 61.2 the month before. The estimate for Prices Paid is 83.0, down two points on the month. The March reading of Construction spending is also due out at 9:00am, it is forecast to be +0.4% on a month on month basis.
*The Fed is scheduled to buy Treasuries today that are due to mature between 5/15/18 and 2/15/21; the results of the operation will be announced just after 10:00am CDT.
*The Treasury is scheduled to announce their quarterly borrowing requirements at 2:00pm CDT.
No comments:
Post a Comment