3 Things You Need to Know Before Trading

*Stocks were generally weak in Asia overnight. Shanghai lost two percent on the session, the Nikkei was down one and two thirds percent, Australia lost 1.4% and the Hang Seng was off a fraction. European indexes are moderately lower as well with the Footsie and Dax currently lower by 0.7% and 0.4% respectively. US stock futures are down a fraction as I write.

*The July reading of China’s Leading Economic Index was 102.10, that is down from 102.84 in June, it is the fifth decline in a row and it brings the index back to a level last seen in May 2009.

*The July reading of Japan’s Balance of Trade was a bigger surplus than forecast at Y804.2 billion, or $9.5 billion. Exports were down 1.4% from a month earlier, but up 23.5% from a year earlier. The month on month drop in exports is fueling additional concerns about the strong Yen, which is a bit lower in the wake of the data; dollar/yen is currently +58 pips at 84.48.

*The August reading of the German IFO Index of the Business Climate was up a half point from the month before to 106.7, a half point fall was the forecast.

*US mortgage applications rose 4.9% in the week ended August 20, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Once again it was the Refi market that was behind the increase, +5.7%; applications for purchase gained only 0.6%.

*The July reading of Durable Goods Orders is due out at 7:30am CDT. Headline Orders are expected to rise 3.0% on a month on month basis and the Order ex-transportation are forecast to rise 0.5%. The July reading of New Home Sales are due out at 9:00am CDT, it is expected to show an annualized sales rate of 330k units, which would be steady from the month before. Also due out at 9:00am is the FHFA House Price Index, a rise of 0.1% is the estimate.

*The weekly report on energy inventories is due out at 9:30am CDT. Stocks of Crude Oil are forecast to increase 400k barrels, Gasoline inventories are expected to fall 500k and the estimate for Distillates is +1.0 million.

*The Treasury plans to sell $36 billion 5 Year Notes today, the results will be announced just after noon CDT.