Chicago, IL 4/3/12 (StreetBeat) -- Stocks were mixed in Asian trade. The Hang Seng was among the best with a gain of 1.3% and Australia was up a slight fraction, but the Nikkei fell 0.6% and Shanghai was again closed. European indexes are lower this morning with the Dax and Footsie both down about a third of a percent. US stock futures are down about a quarter percent as I write.*The February reading of Australian Retail Sales matched the forecast at +0.2% on a month on month basis.
*The Reserve Bank of Australia kept their key cash target rate steady at 4.25% at their policy meeting this morning. The RBA says the pace of output growth was lower than earlier estimated, but that it is prudent to wait for the CPI data before they consider easing; there is scope for easier policy if demand weakens materially, they said.
*The March reading of China’s official Non-manufacturing PMI was up seven tenths from the month before to 58.0.
*The weekly report on chain store sales from ICSC showed an increase of 3.8% on a week on week basis for the week ended March 31; sales are said to be up 4.2% for that week when compared to a year ago. The Johnson Redbook report on the same thing is due out at 7:55am CDT.
*The February reading of Factory Orders is due out at 9:00am CDT; it is expected to be +1.5% month on month.
*The Fed is scheduled to buy TIPS today that are due to mature between 7/15/18 and 2/15/42; the results of the operation will be announced just after 10:00am CDT.
*The automakers are set to release their March sales results today; an annualized sales rate of 14.60 million units is forecast, down a bit from the February result of 15.03 million.
*The minutes from the March FOMC meeting is due to be released at 1:00pm CDT.
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