Tallahassee, FL 12/22/11 (StreetBeat) --Stocks were mixed in Asian trade. Some indexes were quite strong; Australia rose more than two percent, the Hang Seng was up almost 1.9% and the Nikkei added one and a half percent, but Shanghai fell more than one percent on the day. European indexes were moderately higher earlier this morning, but have now fallen toward unchanged at the moment; the Dax and the Footsie are essentially flat right now. US stock futures are down a slight fraction as I write.*The November reading of Japan’s Trade Balance was a larger deficit than expected at Y538 billion, seasonally adjusted. Exports were down 4.5% from a year earlier as Imports were up 11.4% from last year.
*The Bank of Japan kept their key rate steady at 0.10% and also maintained the same level for their asset buying and credit lending programs; but they also cut their economic assessment and say their economic recovery has paused. Also, a Japanese rating agency, R&I, cut Japan’s sovereign rating one notch to AA+.
*The ECB’s 3 Year LTRO tender facility was tapped for EU489 billion; an amount that was closer to the upper end of the range of expectations, that were said to average EU293 billion. There were 523 banks that utilized the LTRO.
*Some members of the Bank of England policy committee thought economic conditions had deteriorated earlier this month when they met, according to the minutes from that meeting, at which the members voted unanimously to keep rates and policy strategy steady. In part because they thought a euro area contraction was underway, some members thought additional QE may be necessary in due course.
*US mortgage applications were down 2.6% in the week ended December 16, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Both key components were down on the week; Purchases were down 4.9% and Refinancings fell 1.6%.
*The November reading of Existing Home Sales is due out at 9:00am CST; it is expected to be 5.06 million units at an annualized pace, or up 2.3% from the month before.
*The weekly report on energy inventories is due out at 9:30am CST. Stocks of Crude Oil are forecast to decrease 2.125 million barrels, Gasoline inventories are expected to increase 1.5 million and the estimate for Distillates is -750k.
*The Fed is scheduled to sell Treasuries twice today. First they will sell Treasuries that are due to mature between 11/30/13 and 3/31/14; the results of this operation will be announced just after 10:00am CST. Then they will sell Treasuries that are due to mature between 6/15/13 and 11/15/13; the results of this operation will be announced just after 1:00pm CST.
*The Treasury plans to sell $29 billion 7 Year Notes today; the auction results will be announced just after noon CST.
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