Tallahassee, FL 1/9/12 (StreetBeat) --Stocks were mixed in Asian trade. China was strong with Shanghai up almost three percent and the Hang Seng added one and a half percent, but Australia was down a slight fraction, while the Nikkei was closed. European indexes are also mixed with the Dax and Footsie both lower by a slight fraction this morning. US stock futures are up are essentially unchanged as I write.*The November reading of Australian Retail Sales was unchanged on a monthly basis, falling short of the estimate for a 0.4% gain.
*The November reading of Germany’s Balance of Trade was a surplus of EU16.2 billion, well above the expected surplus of EU12.0 billion. Exports were up 2.5% on a month on month basis while Imports were down 0.4% on the month.
*The December reading of Switzerland’s Unemployment Rate was up one tenth on the month to 3.1%, matching the forecast.
*The November reading of Swiss Retail Sales was much stronger than expected, up 1.8% year on year.
*Germany sold EU3.90 billion zero-coupon 6-month Bills today; the average yield was -0.012%.
*French President Sarkozy is in Berlin to meet with German Chancellor Merkel today. In an ongoing joint press conference they both said they want Greece to stay in the Euro Zone. However, there was a report in Der Spiegel over the weekend that said the IMF was losing confidence in Greece’s ability to clean up its public finances and unwind their pile of debt. Additionally the Czech central bank governor said that he thought Greece should leave and devalue its new currency, unless Europe is willing to provide “massive” funding for the country.
*The Fed is scheduled to sell Treasuries today that are due to mature between 4/15/12 and 9/30/12; the results of the operation will be announced just after 10:00am CST.
*Atlanta Fed boss Lockhart is set to speak on the economy at 11:40am CST.
*The November reading of Consumer Credit is due out at 2:00pm CST; it is expected to be +$7.0 billion.
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