10 cues you need to be aware of before initiating trade

Good Morning! It is the last trading day of a truncated week. After that we head into a long weekend. Yesterday was pretty okay and we held out pretty reasonably well. Today the global cues are not bad, so at least the start for the last trading of the week should be on a stable kind of footing.

Here are the important cues to watch out for:

In the US, markets closed slightly higher, but off the session highs as investors continued to exhibit wariness about the health of US economy. Here are all the details of trade on Wall Street yesterday .

And in economic data, the Federal Reserve's beige book survey of 12 regional banks showed a deceleration in economic growth across the country. Meanwhile, the US government reported consumer credit fell by over 3 billion dollars in July, the sixth straight monthly drop. And an industry group reported applications for home loans fell last week as refinancing slowed.

In important things to watch out today from the US are the weekly jobless claims and McDonald's August sales.

European markets rose, closed at the highest level since April boosted by technology stocks. Stocks also rose after Portugal successfully raised 1.04 billion euros in the debt market. Meanwhile Asian markets were trading lower .

In the currency space, the dollar slipped against the euro, as the Eurozone's single currency was buoyed by successful bond auctions in Portugal and Poland. However, concerns about the European financial sector remained, helping lift the yen to a 15-year high against the dollar.

In the commodity space, crude rose for the first time in three sessions , bouncing with equities and supported by a weaker dollar as concerns over the European banking system eased and investors cautiously bought riskier assets.

Back on Dalal Street is was a day of quiet consolidation. The surprise was the way the markets held out in the face of weak cues from Asia. The Nifty closed the day at 5,607 up just 4 points, while the Sensex shut shop at 18,666 up 22 points. ANALYSIS .

The government and the RBI will meet later this month to finalise the borrowing details of the second half of the current fiscal. And while there are expectations that the borrowing may be cut, finance ministry officials seemed to indicate otherwise.

Moving on to some primary market action- Gujarat Pipavav will list on the bourses today.

Also, check out some other Stocks In News .