3 Things To Know Before Trading

Tallahassee, FL 11/4/11 (StreetBeat) --*Stocks were broadly higher in Asian trade. The Hang Seng was among the best with a 3.1% increase, Australia gained 2.6%, the Nikkei gained almost two percent and Shanghai rose 0.8%. European indexes are mixed this morning, with the Dax down about a third percent and the Footsie up about twice that amount. US stock futures are essentially unchanged as I write.

*It is being reported that the Greek Parliament will hold its confidence vote on the government at about 5:00pm CDT, or 22:00 GMT.

*The final October reading of Germany’s service sector Purchasing Managers Index was revised down one and a half points to 50.6; it had been expected to be unrevised at 52.1

*The September reading of German Factory Orders was much worse than forecast, falling 4.3% on the month when the estimate was for a gain of 0.1%.

*There has been some chatter in the last twenty-four hours that pressure was being applied to Germany to allow the ECB to act as buyer of last resort for euro zone sovereign debt. Maybe in response to that talk, outgoing German ECBer Stark says that continued ECB bond purchases “set the wrong incentive” and he continues to assume they will end bond purchases “as soon as possible”.

*G20 pledges global growth and other good things; says Europe should solve its debt problem, etc.

*The October reading of Canada’s Unemployment Rate unexpectedly rose two tenths to 7.3%, but had been thought to remain steady at 7.1%. The Net Change in Employment also missed the forecast, falling 54k rather than rising 15k.

*Jon Corzine has resigned from all posts at MF Global.

*The October reading of the Employment Situation Report is due out at 7:30am CDT. The Unemployment Rate is expected to be steady at 9.1%; the net change in total Non-farm Payrolls is forecast to be +95k and the estimate for the Private Sector Payrolls is +125k; the Average Hourly Earnings is expected to be +0.2% on a monthly basis and the Average Work week is thought to have remained unchanged at 34.3 hours.

*The Fed is scheduled to buy Treasuries today that are due to mature between 11/15/17 and 8/15/19; the results of the operation will be announced just after 10:00am CDT.

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