From the get go we are highly sceptical of any financial reports that are released by China and all related entities. Remember what we are dealing with here and let's not get caught up in the notion that you can put lipstick on a pig. This is a bubble economy that has been built on suspect banking and business practises with the plain evidence all around that the ghost cities are being haunted by grim cracks of reckoning. Times are tough, and so the tendency to dress all the reported numbers remains higher - but these tricks are short remedies that will not prevent the gathering storm from erupting at some point.,What to do? How do we get a handle on this? In such circumstances we prefer primary early indicators and third party data. What are the export/import trends with trading partners? What are the trends in key material markets, such as copper, tin, cement,oil and so on? How are key retailers like Walmart doing ? Are they acquiring or selling gold or foreign currency reserves? Put simply, ignore the funny-money economic data and focus on objective verifiable indicators that are closer to the real physical economy.
Think different- and be careful out there ..
Investors' Insights
April 1, 2014
Asian stocks swung between gains and losses as investors weighed reports on China’s manufacturing that underscored weakness in the world’s second-biggest economy.
China’s official manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index rose to 50.3 in March from 50.2 in February. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had expected a reading of 50.1, with figures above 50 indicating expansion. The final March reading of HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics Ltd. was lower than preliminary data.
The data implies that first-quarter growth in China is “likely to have fallen below the annual growth target of 7.5%,” Hongbin Qu, an economist at HSBC, said in a statement. Qu expects authorities to fine-tune policy “sooner rather than later” to stabilize growth
Hokkaido Electric Power Co. lost 7.2 percent in Tokyo on a report...
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