China PMI Signals First Contraction In 6 Months; Drops Most Since May

With every component of HSBC’s China Manufacturing PMI either dropping or showong slower growth, it is hardly a surprise that the much-watched survey of economic strength dipped into contractionary territory. At 49.6 this is the lowest since July 2013 and dropped month-over-month by the most since May 2013. HSBC argues this is “domestic demand cooling” but new export orders tumbled at an accelerating pace as did employment. Of course, the silver lining is that because the prices components did not show acceleration then the PBOC has room to ‘stimulate’ to avoid repeating growth deceleration but that appears – despite today’s further CNY 120 billion reverse repo – to not be the plan for the PBOC for now (given the 20-plus percent YoY gains in house prices). S&P futures fell 6 points on the news, AUDJPY is turmoiling, and Treasuries rallied 1bps.