While you were sleeping: China manufacturing slips
Jan 24 (BusinessDesk) – Equities on both sides of the Atlantic dropped after a report showed that China’s manufacturing
is headed for a contraction this month, fuelling concern about the sustainability of the global economic recovery.
A preliminary survey from HSBC and Markit Economics showed a reading of 49.6 for China’s Purchasing Managers’ Index,
down from a final reading of 50.5 in December and the lowest in six months.
“The marginal contraction of January’s headline HSBC Flash China Manufacturing PMI was mainly dragged by cooling
domestic demand conditions,” Hongbin Qu, chief economist, China & co-head of Asian economic research at HSBC, said in a statement. “This implies softening growth momentum for
manufacturing sectors, which has already weighed on employment growth. As inflation is not a concern, the policy focus
should tilt towards supporting growth to avoid repeating growth deceleration seen in [the first half of] 2013."
In afternoon trading in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 1.05 percent, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index sank 1.09 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 0.97 percent. Slides in shares of American
Express, last down 2.3 percent, and those of JP Morgan Chase, last 2.2 percent weaker, paced losses in the Dow.
"The China data continues to be persistently weak," Jim Russell, senior equity strategist for US Bank Wealth Management
in Cincinnati, told Reuters.
In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index slid 1 percent, as did France’s CAC 40. The UK’s FTSE 100 gave up 0.8 percent, while
Germany’s DAX dropped 0.9 percent.
“We are scared about a slowdown in China,” Paolo Vicentini, who is responsible for total return strategies at Edmond de
Rothschild in Milan, told Bloomberg News. “If the economy does not keep growing at the same pace, companies in key
European countries like Germany which depend on Chinese demand will suffer.”
The latest US economic data were a mixed bag. The preliminary US PMI fell to 53.7 this month, down from 55.0 in
December, according to Markit.
“The flash PMI indicates that the manufacturing sector continued to grow at the start of 2014, and that the underlying
trend most likely remained reassuringly robust,” Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit, said in a statement.
Separately, jobless claims rose by 1,000 to 326,000 last week, less than the 330,000 economists had expected, while
sales of previously owned homes increased 1 percent in December to a 4.87 million annual pace. Sales for 2013 were the
highest since 2006.
“We lost some momentum toward the end of 2013 from disappointing job growth and limited inventory, but we ended with a
year that was close to normal given the size of our population,” Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said in a statement.
In the euro zone, both consumer confidence and manufacturing output rose more than expected in January, according to
separate reports released today.
The latest US earnings offered both disappointment and reasons for optimism. Netflix did the latter, boosting its shares
by 15.9 percent, as the company’s outlook surpassed expectations.
Shares of American Eagle Outfitters tumbled, however, last 9.1 percent weaker, after the company announced that its CEO
is leaving.
(BusinessDesk)