3 Things to Know Before Trading

Stocks were generally higher in Asian trade. Australia gained more than one percent, the Hang Seng was up almost 0.9%, the Nikkei added two thirds of a percent and Shanghai rose a slight fraction. European indexes are mixed at the moment with the Dax up 0.4% and the Footsie better by a slight fraction. US stock futures are essentially unchanged.

*The May reading of Japan’s Trade Balance

*The May reading of Germany’s Trade Balance was in deficit for the second month in a row and for the third time in the last five months; the deficit was Y772.7 billion, not far from the estimate.

*The June reading of Switzerland’s Unemployment Rate was steady at 3.0% as expected.

*European peripheral debt is under some amount of pressure this morning. Some talk that Ireland may be next in line for a ratings cut by Moody’s and the Italian 10 Year spread versus Germany was out more than twenty basis points to an EMU record wide of 245 basis points on more concern for their budget.

*The June reading of the UK Producer Price Index showed output prices were up 0.1% on a month on month basis, matching the forecast.

*The June reading of the Unemployment Situation is due out at 7:30am CDT. The Unemployment Rate is expected to hold steady at 9.1%; the total Non-farm Payrolls is forecast to increase 105k and the estimate for the private sector payrolls is now said to be +132k; the monthly change in Average Hourly Wages is expected to be +0.2% and +1.9% year on year; and the Average Work Week is forecast to be unchanged at 34.4 hours. The May reading of Wholesale Inventories is due out at 9:00am CDT, it is expected to be +0.6% month on month. The May reading of Consumer Credit is due to be released at 2:00pm CDT, it is forecast to show an increase of $4.0 billion from the month before.

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