3 Things to Know Before Trading

Tallahassee, FL 2/10/12 (StreetBeat) -- Stocks were mixed in Asian trade. Shanghai was up a slight fraction, but the Hang Seng fell one percent, Australia was down 0.9% and the Nikkei was off by 0.6%. European indexes are weak this morning, with the Dax off one and three quarters percent and the Footsie is down 0.8%. US stock futures are down by three quarters of a percent or so as I write.

*The Reserve Bank of Australia lowered its forecast for inflation and growth in 2012 in its quarterly commentary on monetary policy. They say the consumer price outlook gives them scope for rate cuts if demand softens.

*The January reading of China’s Trade Balance was a surplus of $27.28 billion, more than double the expected surplus and up by more than $10 billion from the month before. Exports were down 0.5% on a year on year basis, but Imports were off by more than 15%.

*EuroGroup boss, and Luxembourg Prime Minister, Juncker said in Brussels last night that there will no funding for Greece until their Parliament approves the deal, “in short: no disbursement without implementation,” he said. Besides that German FinMin Schaeuble has not backed down from his assessment that the deal the Greek’s want falls short of the debt cutting targets anyway. But this morning George Karatzaferis, a leader of the Greek government coalition party, LAOS, said he and his party will not vote in favor of the new economic measures; he says Greece will not accept this “humiliation”.

*The final January reading of Germany’s Consumer Price Index was unrevised at -0.5% on the month and +2.3% year on year, for the EU harmonized version.

*The January reading of Switzerland’s Consumer Price Index is -0.4% month on month and -0.8% on an annualized basis.

*The January reading of the UK Producer Price Index was +0.5% on the month, well above the estimate for a gaon of 0.1% for prices at the factory gate.

*The December reading of the US Trade Balance is due out at 7:30am CST, it is expected to be a deficit of $48.5 billion. The preliminary February reading of consumer sentiment from the University of Michigan is due out at 8:55am CST, it is forecast to be 74.8, down two tenths from the final January result. The Treasury is set to release at 1:00pm CST their January Budget Statement, it is expected to be a deficit of $34.0 billion; a year ago the deficit for January was $49.8 billion.

*The Fed is scheduled to buy TIPS today that are due to mature between 7/15/18 and 2/15/41; the results of the operation will be announced just after 10:00am CST.

*Fed boss Bernanke is set to speak on “Housing Markets in Transition” at 11:30am CST in Orlando, Florida. Cleveland Fed’s Pianalto will also talk about housing, she is in Cleveland and will begin at 11:50am CST.

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