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Is Asia About To Lead The Crash? Japans Exports Fall, Trade Deficit Widens, China Flash PMI In Contraction For 11 Months And Index Falls 1%, Approaches 2009 Low
Japan’s exports fall 5.8%, trade deficit widens
Japan’s trade deficit widened in August from a month earlier as both exports and imports fell, data released Thursday showed, but the results still managed to beat expectations. Total exports for the month dropped 5.8% from a year earlier, the Finance Ministry reported, though exceeding expectations in a Dow Jones Newswires poll for a 6.2% decrease. August imports lost 5.4%. The trade deficit reached 754.1 billion yen ($9.62 billion), below the year-earlier ¥777.5 billion deficit but wider than July’s ¥517.4 billion trade gap and undershooting expectations for a ¥797.9 billion deficit. Exports to top trading partner China fell 9.9%, offset somewhat by a 10.3% rise in U.S.-bound shipments. Exports to the European Union fell 22.9%. The yen lost a bit of ground following the data, with the dollar USDJPY -0.07% rising to ¥78.40 from ¥78.38 ahead of the numbers.
China Flash PMI Prints ‘Not Bad Enough’ But Still In Contraction For 11 Months
September’s HSBC China
Flash PMI just printed at 47.8, a slight beat of the final August print at 47.6 but still below 50 – for the eleventh month in a row. With only one month of expansion according to this data since June of last year, it seems more reverse repos are ahead (since as we already discussed in detail here – they are caught between a rock and a hard place on easing as the economy ‘supposedly’ transitions not-so-softly). Market reaction to this potentially good-is-bad data print (i.e. not cold enough to warrant massive China stimulus) is USD strength, EUR weakness, and modest S&P futures selling pressure.
- *SHANGHAI COMPOSITE INDEX FALLS 1%, APPROACHES 2009 LOW
**The Chinese Stock Market Is Selling Off After The Dismal Manufacturing Report
