Tallahassee, FL 11/3/11 (StreetBeat) --*Stocks were mixed in Asian trade, except for Japan, which was closed for the Culture Day holiday. The Hang Seng fell two and a half percent and Australia was down about one third of a percent, but Shanghai rose a slight fraction. European indexes are broadly higher this morning, with the Dax up one and a half percent and the Footsie better by a slight fraction. US stock futures are up about a half of a percent as I write.*The September reading of Australia’s Retail Sales is +0.4% on a month on month basis, as expected.
*The October reading of China’s Non-manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index was down 1.6 points from the month before to 57.7.
*When Merkel emerged from yesterday’s meeting with Greek PM Papandreou she said he is set to go ahead with the referendum and called the situation “serious”. Sarkozy said the referendum will decide Greece’s euro zone future and that they won’t get a “single cent” until this situation is resolved. Papandreou said the referendum might occur on December 4 and that he is confident the vote will show that Greece wants to stay in the euro. But wait…members of his party say that Papandreou will soon be out of office, maybe by this week and that there will be no referendum. We await the next headline, but in the meantime, for the first time ever, the Greek 2 Year Note yield went above 100% this morning.
*The ECB will announce their policy decision at 7:45am CDT (remember Europe changed their clocks last weekend). New boss Mario Draghi will tell us all about it in his first post meeting presser set to begin at 8:30am CDT.
*The October reading of the UK service sector PMI is 51.3, down 1.6 points on the month and below the estimate of 52.0.
*The G20 meeting in Cannes officially begins this morning; so the occasional comment from some global leader or unnamed source is likely at any moment.
*US chain stores are announcing their October same store sales results this morning; some of the early reports include: Fred’s +2.0% versus the same month from a year ago; Bon Ton -10.2%; Limited Brands +6%; Cato -3% AND Wet Seal -9.7%.
*The Q3 reading of Non-farm Productivity is due out at 7:30am CDT. Productivity is expected to be +3.0% and the estimate for Unit Labor Costs is -1.0%. Also due out at 7:30am is the weekly report on Initial Jobless Claims, which is expected to be 400k. The October reading of the ISM Non-manufacturing Composite Index is due out at 9:00am CDT, it is forecast to improve by a half point from the month before to 53.5. Also due out at 9:00am CDT is the September reading of Factory Orders, expected to be -0.2% on a month on month basis.
*The weekly report on inventories of Natural Gas is due out at 9:30am CDT, it is expected to show an increase of 70 bcf.
*The Fed is scheduled to buy TIPS today that are due to mature between 1/15/18 and 2/15/41; the results of the operation will be announced just after 10:00am CDT.
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