AsiaPac Data Deluge: China Good, South Korea Bad, Japan Ugly

An avalanche of data from AsiaPac tonighht was a very mixed bag…

South Korean trade data continued to shrink:

*SOUTH KOREA MARCH EXPORTS FALL 8.2% Y/Y
*SOUTH KOREA MARCH IMPORTS FALL 13.8% Y/Y

And deflation is wahing ashorer…

*SOUTH KOREA MARCH CONSUMER PRICES FALL 0.3% M/M

* * *

Japanese data was a disastrophe…Every single aspect of the Tankan survey missed expectations – from Large manufacturing business outlooks to small service business current conditions…

But Finance Minister Aso had some helpful things to say…

*ASO: CAN SEE SOME WEAKNESS IN ECONOMIC SENTIMENT IN TANKAN (umm, yeah!)
*ASO: OVER LONGER TERM, AM VERY COMFORTABLE REGARDING ECONOMY (oh ok then, we won't worry)

So rest easy my friends, Japan is safe to take leveraged long bets on for one more day. Oh one more thing, that whole NIRP, low rates, encourage lending, transmission mechanism thing… FUBAR!!

FinMin Aso had some comments on that too..

*ASO: BANKS HAVE MONEY, DON'T HAVE ANYONE TO LEND IT TO

So the entire Keynesian model just hit the endgame of debt saturation? That explains why he said this….

*ASO: MONETARY EASING, FISCAL STIMULUS HAVE LIMITS

Which directly contradicts Kuroda who just yesterday said…

*KURODA: DON’T THINK THERE IS LIMIT FOR BOJ EASING NOW

So Limits or No Limits? Who cares – just buy moar stuff.

* * *

And then came China…

Cheers were heard from around the world as China's Services PMI jumped off 7 year lows (from 52.7 to 53.8), however this is still below January's levels – not exactly an exuberant bounce after a trillion of fresh credit injections…

*CHINA NON-MANUFACTURING PMI AT 53.8 IN MARCH

And then Manufacturing hit with a big bounce back into expansion…

*CHINA MANUFACTURING PMI AT 50.2 IN MARCH

This is a major problem for Janet, because if China is back in recovery, then The Fed no longer has to worry about China's economy when deciding on the next rate hike.

Of course what all this means is that Caixin's China PMI (due in 30 minutes) will be a miss to baffle everyone with bullshit.