3 Things To Know Before Trading

Tallahassee, FL 11/14/11 (StreetBeat) --*Stocks were generally higher in Asian trade. The Hang Seng and Shanghai were both up about 1.9%, the Nikkei gained one percent and Australia added a slight fraction. European indexes are broadly lower this morning, with the Dax off by about 1.4% and the Footsie down about 0.8%. US stock futures are lower by a quarter to a half percent as I write.

*Japan’s Q3 GDP rose 1.5% on a quarterly basis and was up 6.0% annualized. This matched the estimates and put the economic output above the level achieved before the March earthquake. The GDP Deflator was still negative at -1.9% year on year, but a bit less so than the previous quarter.

*The final September reading of Japan’s Industrial Production was revised to -3.3% from the first release of -4.0%.

*The October reading of Switzerland’s Producer and Import Prices were down one tenth less than expected for both the monthly measure, at -0.2% and the annualized rate at -1.8%.

*Italy sold some 5 Year Bonds today. On the one hand they were able to sell the amount that they set out to sell, on the other hand the yield at 6.29% is about one hundred basis points above the previous sale of that maturity and the closely watched 10 Year Italy/Germany spread has widened out by about twenty-five basis points today, despite the ECB buying Italian debt in the secondary market.

*The 10 Year French/German spread is wider by about five basis points this morning to 154 basis points. While this is in from the worst levels seen during the SP rating confusion last week, the widening is apparently not yet run its course. And the Spanish 10 Year yield is above six percent for the first time since early August.

*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 CST.

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