3 Things to Know Before Trading

Chicago, IL 3/8/12 (StreetBeat) -- Stocks in Asia were broadly higher. The Nikkei was up two percent, the Hang Seng added one and a third percent, Shanghai rose one percent and Australia gained two thirds of a percent. European indexes are also higher this morning, with the Dax among the best at up two percent and the Footsie is better by one and a third percent. US stock futures are up by just shy of one percent as I write.

*Some chatter this morning that China is set to lower its reserve requirement ratio soon, but no movement on this front.

*The February reading of Australia’s Unemployment Rate was up one tenth to 5.2%, as expected. But the net change in employment in February was down 15.4k, well short of the 5k gain that was expected.

*The final revision of Japan’s Q4 GDP was one tenth weaker than expected at -0.7% on an annualized basis and the Deflator was two tenths weaker at -1.8%.

*The January reading of Japan’s Trade Balance was a deficit of Y437.3 billion, more than Y100 billion greater deficit than forecast.

*The January reading of German Industrial Production was +1.6% on a month on month basis, much better than the estimate for a gain of 1.1%.

*The Bank of England kept their key rate steady at 0.50% and kept the Asset Purchase program target unchanged at BP325 billion.

*The ECB kept their key rate steady at 1.00%; we will hear all about it from bank President Draghi at 7:30am CST.

*The Greek PSI debt swap deal is set to expire at 2:00pm CST; official optimism on its chances of success abounds.

*The February reading of Switzerland’s Consumer Price Index was up three tenths on the month and is -0.9% year on year, both results were one tenth higher than estimated.

*The Challenger Group reports that in February there were 51,728 job cut announcements; down a couple thousand from the month before, but up two percent from a year ago for the month.

*The weekly report on Initial Jobless Claims is due out at 7:30am CST, it is expected to be 351k.

*The weekly report on inventories of Natural Gas is due out at 9:30am CST, it is expected to show a decline of 85 bcf.

*The Treasury is scheduled to announce at 10:00am CST the details for next week’s auctions of 3 Year and 10 Year Notes and 30 Year Bonds.

*The Fed is scheduled to buy Treasuries today that are due to mature between 5/15/20 and 2/15/22; the results of the operation will be announced just after 10:00am CST.

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