3 Things to Know Before Trading

Chicago, IL 3/4/12 (StreetBeat) -- Stocks were mostly lower in Asian trade. The Hang Seng was among the weakest with a decline of 1.4%, the Nikkei fell 0.8%, Shanghai was down two thirds of a percent and Australia fell a quarter percent. European indexes are generally lower this morning with the Dax off by one percent and the Footsie down 0.3%. US stock futures are off by a quarter of a percent as I write.

*China lowered their economic growth target to 7.5% from 8.0% earlier today; according to a speech delivered by Premier Wen at the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress. The growth target had been at eight percent from 2005 through 2011; the change signals a renewed effort to generate more domestic consumption and away from stressing exports and investment. They are off to a good start on lowering the growth path, judging by the weekend release of the February reading of the non-manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index, this fell to 48.4 from 52.9 the month before; the lowest result in a year.

*The final February reading of Euro Zone Service Sector PMI was revised down six tenths to 48.8.

*The January reading of Euro Zone Retail Sales beat the forecast with a monthly gain of 0.3%, the estimate was for a decline of 0.1%.

*The final February reading of Germany’s Service Sector PMI was revised up two tenths to 52.8.

*The February reading of the UK’s Service Sector PMI was weaker than forecast, it fell 2.2 points on the month to 53.8, a one point decline had been forecast.

*More seeds of doubt were sown over the weekend on the Greek debt deals. German magazine Der Spiegel reports that the Troika figures another EU50 billion bailout will have to be crafted for Greece in coming years, the UK Telegraph says that Greece might still default despite all the recent efforts and conflicting articles say the Greek/PSI debt swap deal is going to succeed or collapse; we’ll know more later this week as the deal is set to expire on Thursday.

*The February reading of the ISM Non-manufacturing Composite Index is due out at 9:00am CST; it is expected to fall six tenths from the month before to 56.2. Also due out at 9:00am is the January reading of Factory Orders, it is forecast to be -1.5% on the month.

*The Fed is scheduled to sell TIPS today that are due to mature between 7/15/12 and 1/15/15; the results of the operation will be announced just after 10:00am CST.

*Dallas Fed boss Fisher is set to speak on the state of the economy twice today at 12:20pm CST and 6:30pm CST; the second talk likely a repeat..

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