Tallahassee, FL 1/19/12 (StreetBeat) --Stocks were mostly higher in Asian trade. Both the Hang Seng and Shanghai rose 1.3% and the Nikkei was up one percent, but Australia fell a slight fraction. European indexes are broadly higher this morning, with the Dax and Footsie both higher by a half percent or so. US stock futures are up about a third of a percent as I write.*The December reading of Australia’s Unemployment Rate was down one tenth on the month to 5.2%; it had been expected to remain steady at 5.3%. However the net change in December of the number of employed was down 29.3k, when a gain of 10k had been forecast.
*The December reading of Japan’s Nationwide Department Store Sales was +0.8% year on year, a good improvement from the month before when sales were down 1.9% on an annualized basis.
*Debt auctions in France and Spain both went well earlier today; they were the first sales since the SP downgrade.
*Greek debt talks are set to continue today. But the NY Times reports that there is a contingent of hedge funds that are preparing to sue Greece in the European Court of Human Rights should Greece force them to take a loss.
*Bank of America and Morgan Stanley reported their latest earnings report earlier today; feel free to try and figure them out. Google is among the companies that will report after the close today.
*The December reading of the Consumer Price Index is due out at 7:30am CST. Headline CPI is expected to be +0.1% month on month and the estimate for the Core CPI is als0 +0.1% on the month. The annualized CPI rates are expected to be +3.0% and +2.2%, respectively. Also due out at 7:30am is the December reading of Housing Starts; which are expected to be down 0.7% from the month before to an annualized rate of 680k units; Building Permits are forecast to be 680k units as well, unchanged from November. The weekly report on Initial Jobless Claims is the third report due out at 7:30am, it is expected to be 384k. The January reading of the Philly Fed Business Activity Index is due out at 9:00am CST, it is expected to be 10.3, up from a revised lower December result of 6.8.
*The weekly report on energy inventories are due out this morning. The report on Natural Gas will be released at 9:30am CST, it is expected to show a decline of 85 bcf. The petroleum based report is set for 10:00am CST. Stocks of Crude Oil are forecast to increase 3.0 million barrels, Gasoline inventories are expected to rise 2.35 million and the estimate for Distillates is +1.375 million.
*The Treasury is expected to announce at 10:00am CST the details for next week’s auctions of 2 Year, 5 Year and 7 Year Notes.
*The Fed is scheduled to buy Treasuries today that are due to mature between 1/31/18 and 11/15/19; the results of the operation will be announced just after 10:00am CST.
*The Treasury plans to sell $15 billion 10 Year TIPS today; the auction results will be announced just after noon CST.
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