A Chinese glass half full, or half empty?

The data points closely watched this past weekend were the releases of China's Purchasing Manager Index (PMI) readings. On Saturday, China reported that its February manufacturing PMI had missed expectations and skidded to 35.7, and services PMI also missed and printed at 29.6. Both readings were all-time lows.

The Caixin private sector PMI also fell to an all-time low on Monday.

Was these misses surprises? Yes and no. They were surprises inasmuch as the market partly expected the authorities to manipulate the numbers and report a less severe downturn. They were no surprise as the Chinese economy was obviously very weak in the wake of the COVID-19 coronavirus epidemic gripping the country.

The full post can be found here.