8 Things To Read Before Trading Today

From the Desk of Lou Brien:

1. Stocks were generally lower in Asia trade; the Hang Seng fell 1.5% and Shanghai lost slightly more than two percent, but Australia was unchanged on the session and the Nikkei gained 0.4%. Europe is weaker; although the Dax is off by 0.5%, the Footsie and most other indexes are lower by more than one percent. US stock futures are a fraction lower as I write.
2. The Q1 reading of Australia’s Producer Price Index was stronger than forecast as it rose 1.0% on a quarter on quarter basis versus an estimate for a 0.6% increase. The PPI was -0.1% on a year over year basis, but this was expected to be -0.6%.
3. Greek debt is once again under enormous pressure; yields are skyrocketing with their 2 Year Note trading above 16% earlier this morning and Greece credit default swaps said to be at a record, above 760 basis points. Today they are not alone with Portugal and Spain also seeing their yields moving sharply higher and CDS for those countries also moving to record high levels. The euro is currently trading lower by about 100 pips on the day and is once again below 1.3300.
4. In March there were 34,905 UK loans for house purchases, according to the British Bankers Association, that was about 3k fewer than expected.
5. The weekly report on chain store sales from ICSC showed that sales were up 0.2% for the week ended April 24 on a week to week basis; on a year over year basis the weekly sales were +5.5%. The Johnson Redbook report on the same thing is due out at 7:55am CDT.
6. The February reading of the Case/Shiller Home Price Index is due out at 8:00am CDT, it is expected to show a year on year gain of 1.3%. The April reading of Consumer Confidence is due out at 9:00am CDT and is forecast to show a one point gain on the month to 53.5. Also due out at nine o’clock is the April reading of the Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index, it is estimated to be 10, up from 6 the month before.
7. Busy day for Fed boss Bernanke. He is scheduled to make some comments at the first meeting of the President’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform at 9:00am CDT. Then he will chair the opening day of the FOMC’s two day policy meeting. No word from the policy makers until tomorrow afternoon.
8. CEO Lloyd Blankfein and six current and former Goldman Sachs employees are scheduled to appear before the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations at 9:00am CDT.