China PMI Surges to 50.4

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

China’s PMI finally showed a heartbeat. The HSBC “flash” reading of its China manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) was 50.4. It is measured on a 100 point scale. A number over 50 shows expansion, and the figure for the People’s Republic has not be above that level for a year.

According to MarketWatch, Nomura economist Zhiwei Zhang said, “It shows that the policy easing has continued to support a growth recovery, and reinforces our view that growth will pick up strongly in the fourth quarter to 8.4% from 7.4% in the third quarter.”

The open issue is where the manufactured goods have gone will go in the near future.

One theory is that demand in the U.S., EU, U.K., and Japan are better than their trade balances and GDPs would suggest. There is little rational support for that point of view.

Another possibility is that the Chinese consumer has lost some of his fear about a slowdown within the nation’s own borders. But, such a spring up in optimism seems unlikely as China GDP slows. Business spending by the government, particularly on infrastructure projects might support PMI.

The last possibility is that the central government has masked actual numbers. This would mean outright lying, or that manufactured goods have piled up on docks, in warehouses, and on ships.

The Chinese are not above that kind of deception.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

Continue Reading

Top Gaining Stocks

CBOE Vol: 1,568,143
PSKY Vol: 12,285,993
STX Vol: 7,378,346
ORCL Vol: 26,317,675
DDOG Vol: 6,247,779

Top Losing Stocks

LKQ
LKQ Vol: 4,367,433
CLX Vol: 13,260,523
SYK Vol: 4,519,455
MHK Vol: 1,859,865
AMGN Vol: 3,818,618