3 Things To Know Before Trading

Tallahassee, FL 12/13/11 (StreetBeat) --Stocks were mostly lower in Asian trade. Shanghai was among the worst with a decline of almost 1.9%, Australia lost 1.4%, the Nikkei fell about 1.2% and the Hang Seng was down 0.7%. European indexes are doing better this morning with the Dax and Footsie both higher by about three quarters of a percent. US stock futures are up by about a half percent or so as I write.

*The October reading of Japan’s Tertiary Industry Index was up 0.6% on a month on month basis, a couple of tenths better than forecast.

*The December reading of Germany’s ZEW Survey of Economic Sentiment improved slightly to -53.8; better than the six tenth decline to a negative 55.8 that was expected. However the ZEW Current Situation component fell 5.4 points to 26.8, the lowest result since July 2010.

*The November reading of the UK Consumer Price Index matched the forecasts at +0.2% month on month and +4.8% year on year.

*Some of the European peripherals were able to sell some debt today. The ECB has been seen in the market buying Italian 10 Year debt, but even so the spread to Germany is wider by about ten basis points as I write.

*The November reading of the NFIB Small Business Optimism Index improved by almost two points to 92.0, a half point better than forecast. It is the third increase in a row for this index, but it is still below the level it was at when the year began.

*The weekly report on chain store sales from ICSC showed a decline of 0.1% on a week on week basis for the week ended December 10. The Johnson Redbook report on the same thing is due out at 7:55am CST.

*The November reading of Retail Sales is due out at 7:30am CST. Headline Sales are expected to be up 0.6% on a month on month basis and Sales ex-autos are forecast to be +0.4% on the month. The October reading of Business Inventories is due out at 9:00am CST, it is expected to be +0.8% from the month before.

*The December reading of the IBD/TIPP Index of Economic Optimism is due out at 9:00am CST, it is forecast to rise almost two points to 42.3.

*The Treasury plans to sell $21 billion re-opened 10 Year Notes today; the auction results will be announced just after noon CST.

*The FOMC is meeting today and are expected to release their policy statement at around 1:15pm CST.

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