What to Know Before Trading Today

*Stocks were generally lower in Asian trade

*Stocks were generally lower in Asian trade. Shanghai was down almost two percent, Australia lost 1.2%, the Hang Seng and Nikkei were both down a fraction. European indexes are little changed at the moment; the Dax is currently flat and the Footsie down 0.2%. US stock futures are lower by a quarter percent as I write.

*The July reading of Japan's Tertiary Industry Index is +1.7% on a month on month basis, more than double the expected increase.

*The Q2 reading of Switzerland's Industrial Production was +5.7% on a quarter on quarter basis, a few tenths shy of the estimate.

*The August reading of UK Retail Sales was down 0.5% on a monthly basis, well short of the forecast for a gain of 0.3%.

*Three bits of data are due to be released at 7:30am CDT. The August reading of the Producer Price Index is expected to be up 0.3% on a month on month basis and the Core PPI forecast is +0.1%; the weekly report on Initial Jobless Claims, it is expected to be 458k; and the Q2 reading of the Current Account Balance is forecast to be a deficit of $125.0 billion. The Treasury will announce the net change in July of foreign holdings of long-term US securities at 8:00am CDT, known as the TIC data it is expected to be an increase of $47.5 billion. The September reading of the Philly Fed Business Activity Index is due out at 9:00am CDT, it is expected to improve to 0.3 from the surprise August decline to -7.7.

*There are two Fed speakers on the calendar today. Governor Duke will speak at a Chicago Fed event on mortgages at 8:30am CDT and Governor Tarullo will talk about the shadow banking system at 10:30am CDT.

*Treasury's Geithner will be on Capitol Hill twice today, both sessions are about the Foreign Exchange market, most likely with a focus on China's currency regime. He will testify before the Senate Banking Committee at 9:00am CDT and then talk to the House Ways and Means Committee at 1:00pm CDT. As if on que the Chinese Yuan rose to its strongest level versus the dollar since 1993, of course the move is less dramatic than I make it sound as the increase in its value against the dollar has only been a net change of about 0.6% in the last month.

*The weekly report on inventories of Natural Gas is due out at 9:30am CDT, it is expected to show an increase of 95 bcf.

*The Fed is expected to buy Treasuries today that are due to mature between 3/15/12 and 2/28/13; the results will be announced just after 10:00am CDT.

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What to Know Before Trading Today

By: Ronald Russo

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