3 Things to Know Before Trading

Northern, WI 4/23/12 (StreetBeat) -- Stocks broadly lower in Asian trade. The Hang Seng was among the worst with a 1.8% decline, Shanghai fell three quarters of a percent, Australia was down a third of a percent and the Nikkei was off a slight fraction. European indexes are getting hit hard this morning, with most down more than two percent at the moment; The Dax is down 2.7% and the Footsie is lower by 1.7%. US stock futures are down about one percent as I write.

*The Q1 reading of Australia’s Producer Price Index was -0.3% on a quarterly basis; well below the expected gain of 0.4%.

*The preliminary April reading of China’s HSBC manufacturing sector Purchasing Managers Index was 49.1, up from 48.3 the month before.

*The preliminary April reading of the Euro Zone’s manufacturing sector PMI was down 2.7 points from the month before at 46.0, a slight gain had been expected. The Zone’s service sector PMI was down 1.3 points on the month at 47.9, but a slight gain was expected here as well.

*The preliminary April reading of Germany’s manufacturing sector PMI unexpectedly fell two points to 46.3, a fractional gain was forecast; it is the lowest result since July 2009 and the fifth of the last seven results under fifty. The service sector PMI was however up a half point on the month to 52.6, three tenths more than expected.

*The French Socialist Presidential candidate Francois Hollande came out on top in the first round of voting in France with 28% of the vote; current President Nicolas Sarkozy was second with 26%. The two will face off in the final round of voting in a couple of weeks, with polls showing Hollande to be the solid frontrunner. The far right National Front candidate, Marine Le Pen, was surprisingly strong with 18% of the vote on Sunday.

*The Dutch government has failed to agree on a new austerity budget package, probably meaning the cabinet will resign and the government will be dissolved. The situation has led to concern that the Netherlands could see a credit downgrade.

*As a result of the poor manufacturing sector PMI results, the election result in France and the situation in the Netherlands, the German Bund yield has fallen to a new record low at 1.65%.

*The Fed is scheduled to buy Treasuries today that are due to mature between 2/15/36 and 2/15/42; the results of the operation will be announced just after 10:00am CDT.

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