3 Things to Know Before Trading

Stocks were bid throughout Asia overnight. The Nikkei was up 1.3%, Shanghai added 0.8%, the Hang Seng gained a quarter percent and Australia was up a fraction. European indexes are also generally higher, with the Dax currently up a half percent and the Footsie a fraction better. US stock futures are up about a third of a percent.

*Nationwide department store sales in Japan were down 1.4% on a year over year basis in July; that is the smallest annualized decline since March 2008.

*The July reading of the German Producer Price Index was up 0.5% on a monthly basis; it was expected to rise only 0.1%. On a year over year basis the PPI was +3.7%, a few tenths more than forecast.

*The July reading of Switzerland’s Trade Balance was a record surplus of SF2.89 billion, mainly the result of falling imports.

*The August reading of Switzerland’s ZEW Index of Economic Growth Expectations bounced up to 9.1 from 2.2 the month before; this index had fallen sharply from the mid-fifties in the previous three months.

*The July reading of UK Retail Sales was up 1.1% on a month on month basis, that was up almost four times the forecast.

*GM has filed papers for its upcoming IPO; listing several banks as underwriters.

*The weekly report on Initial Jobless Claims is due out at 7:30am CDT, it is expected to be 478k. The August reading of the Philly Fed Business Activity Index is due out at 9:00am CDT, it is forecast to increase two points on the month to 7.0. Also due out at 9:00am is the July reading of the Leading Economic Indicators, a reading of +0.1% is the estimate.

*The Fed is expected to buy Treasuries this morning, the operation is set to begin around 9:15am CDT; they will target paper maturing between August 2016 and May 2020.

*The weekly report on inventories of Natural Gas is due out at 9:30am CDT, it is expected to show a gain of 30 bcf.

*The Treasury is expected to announce at 10:00am CDT the details of next week’s auctions of 30 Year TIPS, 2 Year Notes, 5 Year Notes and 7 Year Notes.

*St. Louis Fed boss Bullard is scheduled to speak on the economy at 11:30am CDT.