Northern, WI 5/4/12 (StreetBeat) -- Stocks were mixed in Asian trade, which again missed Japan because of a holiday there. The Hang Seng and Australia both fell about three quarters of a percent, but Shanghai managed a half percent gain. European indexes are mixed this morning, but both the Dax and Footsie are lower on the day by a third and a half percent respectively. US stock futures are essentially unchanged as I write.*The April reading of the HSBC version of China’s service sector PMI was up eight tenths from the month before to 54.1; no estimate provided.
*The March reading of Euro Zone Retail Sales was +0.3% month on month, better than the forecast for unchanged.
*The final April reading of the Euro Zone’s service sector PMI was revised down one point to 46.9; the lowest result since last October.
*The final April reading of Germany’s service sector PMI was revised down four tenths to 52.2, but that was up one tenth from the month before.
*The March reading of Switzerland’s Retail Sales was up 4.2% on a year on year basis; the gain was almost four times the expected increase.
*In April UK house prices were much weaker than expected, down 2.4% on a month on month basis, three times the forecast drop, according to Halifax.
*The April reading of the Employment Situation Report is due out at 7:30am CDT. The Unemployment Rate is expected to be steady on the month at 8.2%. The net change in total Non-farm Payrolls is expected to be +160k and the estimate for Private Sector Payrolls is +165k. The Average Hourly Wages are forecast to be up 0.2% on the month and +2.0% year on year. The Average Work Week is expected to be steady on the month at 34.5 hours.
*The Fed is scheduled to sell Treasuries today that are due to mature between 8/15/12 and 2/28/13; the results of the operation will be announced just after 10:00am CDT.
*Two Fedsters are on the speaking calendar today, including: San Francisco Fed boss Williams at 10:25am CDT and Chicago Fed’s Evans at 10:30am CDT.
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