3 Things To Know Before Trading

Tallahassee, FL 11/8/11 (StreetBeat) --*Stocks were mixed in Asian trade. Australia gained a half percent and the Hang Seng was unchanged on the day, but Shanghai lost a quarter percent and the Nikkei was down about 1.3%. European indexes are broadly higher this morning, with the Dax up 1.7% and the Footsie better by one and a half percent. US stock futures are up more than a half percent as I write.

*The September reading of Australia’s Trade Balance was a surplus of A$2.56 billion, a bit less than the A$3 billion surplus that was expected. Imports fell 1.3% on a monthly basis, but Exports were down 2.5% from the month before.

*The September reading of Germany’s Trade Balance was a bigger surplus than forecast at EU17.4 billion. Exports grew 0.9% on the month while Import were down 0.8% from the month before.

*The October reading of Swiss Consumer Confidence was down seven points to -24; it’s a bigger drop than was expected and is now at the lowest level since July 2009.

*The September reading of UK Industrial Production was unchanged from the month before, one tenth under the forecast.

*Greece is expected to announce a caretaker government today. Cabinet ministers have resigned from their positions and Papandreou expects a solution “soon”.

*As of now Berlusconi still has a job. The Italian Parliament is expected to vote on their 2010 budget (not a misprint) later today, which may reveal the amount of support the Italian leader still has. Depending on how this vote goes there could be a government confidence vote later in the week.

*The weekly report on chain store sales from ICSC showed an increase of 1.0% on a week on week basis for the week ended November 5; the weekly sales are said to be up 2.7% when compared to the same week from a year ago. The Johnson Redbook report on the same thing is due out at 7:55am CDT.

*The October reading of the NFIB Small Business Optimism Index was up 1.3 points on the month to 90.2. While this is the second increase in a row this is “still a recession-level reading that has typified the recovery to date”, says William Dunkelberg, the NFIB economist.

*The November reading of the IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index is due out at 9:00am CST, it is expected to be up a fraction to 41.0.

*The Fed is scheduled to buy Treasuries today that are due to mature between 11/15/19 and 8/15/21; the results of the operation will be announced just after 10:00am CST.

*The Treasury plans to sell $32 billion 3 Year Notes today; the results of the auction will be announced just after noon CST.

*There are two Fed speakers on the calendar today. Minneapolis Fed boss Kocherlakota will talk at noon CST and Philly Fed’s Plosser will appear at 12:30pm CST.

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