Economic Stimulus Act

Investors are continuing to search for direction Wednesday, after two days of relatively flat trading. Stock futures are narrowly mixed.

Chinese exports and imports grew faster than expected in February, underlining the momentum behind the world’s third-largest economy and reinforcing the case for a rise in the yuan.

Japanese machinery orders, a closely watched indicator of future business investment, fell in January as companies reined in spending after a big jump the previous month.

China’s exports rose in February in a new sign of growing global demand that could help persuade officials to let the Chinese currency rise.

President Barack Obama stood with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou on Tuesday and pledged that the United States would work with its ally, even as Greece’s enormous debts sparked frenzied trading.

European officials urged the U.S. to join in a crackdown on speculators who bet against Europe’s currency union, warning they might ban some credit default swaps — opaque financial instruments blamed for worsening the world financial crisis.

The chief economist of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who is an expert on the financial instruments that figured largely in the 2008 crisis, is leaving his position for the private sector.

Treasurys inched slightly higher Tuesday, in the midst of the government’s $40 billion auction of 3-year notes — the first of several multibillion-dollar note and bond offerings in the coming days.