Things To Know Before The Open

*Stocks were mixed in Asia. The Hang Seng was particularly strong as it gained 2%, Australia added 0.4% and the Nikkei was up a fraction; but Shanghai was down about a half percent on the session. European indexes are generally higher on the day, but not by much; Footsie is up a fraction at the moment and the Dax has managed a gain of a quarter percent. US stock futures are up just a small fraction.

*The October reading of China’s Non-manufacturing sector Purchasing Managers Index fell 1.2 points on the month to 60.5, taking back most of the increase seen the month before.

*The September reading of Swiss Retail Sales were up 3.8% on a year on year basis, up strongly from the meager gain of +0.1% seen in August.

*The October reading of the UK service sector PMI rose four tenths to 53.2, a better result than the two tenth decline that was expected.

*The latest US election results show the Republicans in firm control of the House with at least 240 seats out of the 435 total and with strong gains in the Senate, which looks to breakdown as follows: 51 Democrats, 47 Republicans and 2 Independents.

*US mortgage applications fell 5.0% in the week ended October 29, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Applications for purchase gained 1.4% during the week, while applications for refinancing fell 6.4%.

*The Challenger group says that in October there were 37,986 layoff announcements; down 31.8% from a year ago but up 835 from the month before.

*The ADP estimate of October private sector non-farm payrolls is due out at 7:15am CDT, they are expected to announce an increase of 20k. The ISM Non-manufacturing Composite Index is due out at 9:00am CDT, it is forecast to be 53.5, up just a fraction from the month before. Also due out at 9:00am is the September reading of Factory Orders, it is expected to be +1.6% on a month on month basis.

*The Treasury is scheduled to announce at 8:00am CDT the details at to next week’s refunding auctions of 3 Year Notes, 10 Year Notes and 30 Year Bonds.

*The weekly report on energy inventories is due out at 9:30am CDT. Stocks of Crude Oil are forecast to fall 1.5 million barrels, but Gasoline inventories are expected to be unchanged on the week and the estimate for Distillates is -1.0 million.

*The automakers are scheduled to release their October sales results today; the average estimate is for total vehicle sales to be an annualized rate of 11.80 million units, up from the September total of 11.73 million.

*The FOMC is scheduled to release their post meeting statement at about 1:15pm CDT; probably be worth paying attention to the details of QE, the Sequel. Size is important and so too is the expected duration of their commitment to the process.