6 Things To Read Before Trading Today

From the Desk of Lou Brien

1. Stocks were higher across Asia. The Nikkei led the way with a gain of 1.5%, the Hang Seng and Shanghai were both up by 1.3% and Australia added a fraction. European indexes are however unchanged to lower, with both the Footsie and Dax lower by a quarter percent or so. US stock futures are trading up by about a quarter of a percent as I write.
2. China report that Industrial Corporate Profits are up 120 percent year to date on a year over year basis. The combined net income grew $71.3 billion in January and February from a year ago. The comparison was relatively easy as the year ago period showed a 37.3% decline.
3. The February reading of Japan's Consumer Price Index, ex-fresh food, is -1.2% on a year over year basis, matching the forecast. The March reading of that same price measure for Tokyo is -1.8%, one tenth more deflation than expected.
4. ECB boss Trichet is now "happy" with the solution euro area governments devised for Greece. (When he said IMF involvement would be "very, very bad" he must have intended a definition of the word "bad" that means "good, good, good".) By the way, the deal could at some point take the form of bilateral loans to Greece, about two thirds coming from EU countries and one third IMF. However, for the moment it is an agreement to backstop Greece in a worst case scenario, but not now since Greece has not yet asked for help. If the loans need to be executed euro member states will have to vote unanimously to activate the package and any one state could veto the whole deal.
5. The dollar/euro has bounced this morning, currently up by about 130 pips, trading around 1.3400.
6. The final revision of the Q4 GDP is due out at 7:30am CST. None of the key GDP components are expected to change from the first revision, the forecasts are: GDP +5.9%, Personal Consumption +1.7%, GDP Deflator +0.4% and Core PCE QoQ annualized +1.6%. The final March reading of consumer sentiment from the University of Michigan is due out at 8:55am CST; it is expected to be revised up from the preliminary result by a half point to 73.0, in February it was 73.6.