6 Things to Read Before Trading Today

From the Desk of Lou Brien

1. Stocks were mostly lower in Asia; that was the case for Australia which lost 0.8%, the Hang Seng and Shanghai were both lower by 0.6% and the Nikkei which lost a fraction. European indexes are straddling unchanged on the session and the same can be said of US stock futures.
2. There was another pair of suicide bombings in Russia today. Today’s incidents are said to have killed at least a dozen people; they occurred in the southern Russian province of Dagestan and officials think it is the same group that perpetrated the Moscow subway bombings earlier this week.
3. The February reading of Australian Retail Sales was surprisingly weak; sales were down 1.4% but had been expected to increase 0.3%. The March reading of the German Unemployment Rate fell one tenth to 8.0%, a rate of 8.2% had been forecast. Also better than expected was the net change in the number of unemployed, this fell 31k but the estimate was for a gain of 7k. However, the Unemployment Rate in the Eurozone was up one tenth to 10.0% in February.
4. US mortgage applications were up 1.3% in the week ended March 26, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
5. ADP will announce its estimate for the net change in private sector non-farm payrolls at 7:15am CDT, it is expected to be +40k. The March reading of the Chicago Purchasing Managers Index is due out at 8:45am CDT, three minutes earlier for subscribers; the estimate is 61.0, down from the February result of 62.6. The February reading of Factory Orders is due out at 9:00am CDT, it is forecast to be +0.5% on the month.
6. The weekly report on energy inventories is due out at 9:30am CDT. Stocks of Crude Oil are forecast to grow 2.5 million barrels, but inventories of Gasoline are expected to fall 1.85 million and the estimate for Distillates is -1.375 million.