1. Stocks generally closed higher in Asia. Although Shanghai lost a fraction, the Hang Seng and Australia both gained about one percent and the Nikkei was up a fraction. The same for Europe, with the Dax and Footsie both showing a gain of about two thirds of a percent. US stock futures are essentially unchanged as I write.
  2. The January reading of Japan’s Consumer Price Index ex-fresh food is -1.3% on a year over year basis, unchanged from the month before and matching the forecast. And the February reading of that price measure for Tokyo fell two tenths from the month before to -1.8% year on year.
  3. The preliminary January reading of Japan’s Industrial Production was more than twice the forecast at +2.5%.
  4. In January Japan’s Retail Trade was up an exceptionally strong 2.9% on a month over month basis, well above the +0.3% estimate and +2.6% on year over year basis, also well above the forecast.  German states have been releasing the February reading of their Consumer Price Index this morning, some of the month on month results include: Hesse +0.2%, Saxony +0.2%, Bavaria +0.4% and Brandenburg +0.2%. The preliminary February reading of the overall German Consumer Price Index is due out later this morning, the EU Harmonized version is expected to be +0.5% on a monthly basis and +0.6% on a year over year basis.
  5. The Q4 reading of the UK GDP was revised up a couple of tenths to +0.3% on a quarter on quarter basis.  UK house prices fell 1.0% on a monthly basis in February, according to Nationwide, a small gain had been expected.  Chicago Fed boss Evans is scheduled to be interviewed on CNBC just after 7:00am CST.
  6. The first revision of the Q4 GDP for the US is due out at 7:30am. Headline growth is forecast to be unchanged at +5.7% from the initial report, the same for the key components of Personal Consumption, unrevised at +2.0%, the GDP Price Deflator unchanged at +0.6% and the PCE Core on a quarter on quarter annualized basis at +1.4%. The February reading of the Chicago Purchasing Managers Index is due out at 8:45am CST, three minutes earlier for subscribers. The Chicago Index is forecast to be 59.7, down a bit from the January result of 61.5. The final February reading of consumer sentiment from the University of Michigan, it is expected to be up two tenths from the preliminary reading for the month to 73.9; the January result was 74.4. The January reading of Existing Home Sales is due out at 9:00am CST, it expected to increase by 0.9% from the month before to an annualized sales rate of 5.50 million units.
  7. Some other Fed appearances today include: Fed Governor Duke is scheduled to testify before a couple of House Committees at 8:00am CST on the topic of lending for small businesses and commercial real estate; assistant Treasury Secretary Herbert Allison will also participate; New York Fed’s Dudley and Minneapolis Fed boss Kocherlakota will speak at 9:45am CST at a forum to discuss a paper called “Gauging Financial Conditions and Their Implications for Monetary Policy”; and Fed Governor Tarullo and Chicago’s Evans will speak on a panel about financial regulatory reform at 12:30pm CST.

World Market Media