3 Things To Know Before Trading

Tallahassee, FL 12/20/11 (StreetBeat) --Stocks were mixed in Asian trade. The Nikkei added a half percent and the Hang Seng was up a slight fraction, but both Shanghai and Australia were down a slight fraction on the day. European indexes are also mixed this morning, with the Dax up about 0.8% and the Footsie down 0.3% at the moment. US stock futures are up about one percent as I write.

*The Reserve Bank of Australia thinks that the European debt crisis posed a downside risk to the Australian economy, say the minutes from their December policy meeting; they think there is a “non-trivial” chance of a very sharp contraction in Europe, but that Asia was showing solid growth and the US had a “more positive tone”.

*The November reading of Germany’s Producer Prices was +0.1% on a monthly basis, matching the forecast. The annualized rate of 5.2% was right on the estimate as well.

*The December reading of Germany’s IFO Business Climate Survey was better than expected at 107.2, up six tenths from the month before. Also better than forecast were the IFO surveys of the Current conditions and expectations.

*Fitch announced that the AAA rating for the EFSF debt issues is mainly dependent on France and Germany retaining their AAA rating. So, they say, “the revision of the rating outlook on France to negative last Friday implies that the risk of a downgrade of EFSF debt has increased. We affirmed France’s AAA status but warned that there is a slightly greater than 50% chance of a downgrade within the next year or two.”

*The November reading of Switzerland’s Trade Balance is a surplus of SF3.0 billion; well above the expectation for a surplus of SF2.0 billion. Exports were down 6.8% from the month before, but Imports fell even more, -7.7%.

*The weekly report on chain store sales from ICSC shows sales were up 3.4% on a week on week basis for the week ended December 17, well above recent results. The Johnson Redbook report on the same thing is due out at 7:55am CST.

*The November reading of Housing Starts is due out at 7:30am CST. Starts are expected to be 635k units annualized and the estimate for Building Permits is also 635k.

*The Fed is scheduled to buy Treasuries today that are due to mature between 2/15/36 and 11/15/41; the results of the operation will be announced just after 10:00am CST.

*The Treasury plans to sell $35 billion 5 Year Notes today; the auction results will be announced just after noon CST.

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