Stocks were generally higher in Asian trade. Australia led the way with a two percent gain, the Nikkei added more than one percent and the Hang Seng was up 0.4%. Bucking the trend was Shanghai which lost 0.6% on the session. European indexes are broadly higher, with the Footsie currently higher by almost 1.4% and the Dax up a bit more than one percent. US stock futures are higher by about one percent as I write.

*The Q2 reading of Australia’s GDP was the best in three years with quarter on quarter growth of 1.2%, better than the 0.9% forecast.

*The August reading of China’s manufacturing sector Purchasing Managers Index was up a half point on the month to 51.7, a couple tenths better than forecast.

*The July reading of Germany’s Retail Sales was -0.3%, well below the gain of 0.5% that was expected. That is the second month in a row in which Sales fell 0.3% and the fourth month in five that showed a decline.

*The final August reading of Germany’s manufacturing sector PMI was unrevised at 58.2; the index was 61.2 in July.

*The August reading of Switzerland’s manufacturing sector PMI was down 5.5 points on the month to 61.4, far short of the estimate of 65.8.

*The August reading of the UK’s manufacturing PMI was down 2.6 points on the month to 54.3. It had been expected to fall only a fraction to 57.0.

*US mortgage applications were up 2.7% in the week ended August 27. Applications for purchase were up 1.8% and those for Refi rose 2.8%.

*The Challenger Groups says that in August there were 34,768 job cut announcements, that is down 55% from last August. Announced job cuts last month were the fewest since June 2000.

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