3 Things To Know Before Trading

Tallahassee, FL 11/7/11 (StreetBeat) --*Stocks were mixed in Asian trade; but the Hang Seng was down 0.8%, Shanghai lost 0.7%, the Nikkei fell 0.4% and Australia was off a slight fraction. European indexes are mostly lower on the day, with the Footsie down about 0.6% and the Dax is lower by a slight fraction at the moment. US stock futures are down a bit more than a quarter percent as I write.

*The preliminary reading of Japan’s Coincident Economic Index was close to the expectation at 88.9; down a fraction from the month before which was revised down by more than seventeen points. The Leading Economic Index was also close to the forecast at 91.6, down a couple points on the month from a sharply lower revision.

*Greek PM Papandreou and opposition leader Antonis Samaras have agreed to create a unity government that will act as a caretaker until elections can be held early next year. The new government is likely to be headed by Lukas Papademos, a former vice president of the ECB.

*Earlier reports that Italian PM Berlusconi was set to step down within a few hours are now being denied by Berlusconi, but Reuters says he is meeting with his family to discuss the possibility. The Italian bond and stock markets are being buffeted by every twist and turn; while the Italian 10 Year Note yield is off its worst levels of the day it remains at a euro era high and the spread to Germany’s Bund is still near 470 basis points and the spread to the blended yields of Germany, France and the Netherlands is about 410 basis points; this is apparently the benchmark for the LCH Clearnet margin purposes and it is said 450 basis points is a key threshold for taking margin levels higher. The Italian stock market is one of the few that are higher on the day, but it is very volatile.

*The September reading of euro zone Retail Sales was -0.7% on the month, well short of the estimate of -0.1%.

*The September reading of German Industrial Production was -2.7% on a monthly basis, triple the expected decline.

*The October reading of Switzerland’s Unemployment Rate was unchanged at 3.0%, as expected.

*The October reading of Switzerland’s Consumer Price Index was -0.1% on both a monthly and annualized basis, both readings were below the estimate for +0.2%.

*The Fed is scheduled to buy Treasuries today that are due to mature between 2/15/36 and 8/15/41; the results of the operation will be announced just after 10:00am CDT.

*The September reading of Consumer Credit is due out at 2:00pm CDT; it is expected to be an increase of $5.20 billion.

StreetBeat Disclaimer

Distributed by Viestly