Things to know before trading today

THE DAY AHEAD

August 3

*Stocks were mixed in Asian trade. The Nikkei was up almost 1.3%, Australia added two thirds of a percent and the Hang Seng had a fractional gain, but Shanghai was down 1.7%. European indexes are narrowly traded this morning; the Footsie is currently off by 0.4% and the Dax is down a fraction at the moment. US stock futures are a fraction lower as well, as I write.

*The June reading of Australian Retail Sales rose two tenths on a month on month basis, only half the forecast.

*The Reserve Bank of Australia left their key cash target rate unchanged at 4.50% at their policy meeting earlier today, as expected.

*The July reading of China’s non-manufacturing sector PMI was up almost three points to 60.1, matching the three month average.

*The July reading of Switzerland’s Consumer Price Index was -0.7% on a month on month basis and +0.4% year over year, both results were a few tenths below the estimates.

*The weekly report on chain store sales from ICSC showed were down 0.1% on a week to week basis for the week ended July 31. The Johnson Redbook report on the same thing is due out at 7:55am CDT.

*The June report on Personal Income and Spending is due out at 7:30am CDT. Income is expected to rise 0.2% on a monthly basis and the estimate for Spending is +0.1%. The PCE Core inflation measure is forecast to rise 0.1% on the month for an annualized reading of +1.3%. The June reading of Factory Orders is due out at 9:00am CDT, it is expected to be -0.5% from the month before. Also due out at 9:00am is the June reading of Pending Home Sales, it is forecast to rise 4.0% on a month on month basis.

*The automakers are scheduled to release their July vehicle sales results today; an annualized sales rate of 11.60 million units is the estimate.