by Chris Becker
Just in, the official China Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for September, printed an expanding 51.0, bang on expectations and only just below last months reading of 51.1
The ASX200 has reacted positively, but the AUDUSD is not impressed.
As David Scutt at Marketscuttlebutt points out, the acceleration in the PMI is at odds with the declining industrial production prints:
Breaking down the gauge output, new orders and new export orders all continued to expand while backlogs and inventories contracted at a faster rate than August. Elsewhere employment held steady at 48.8, continuing the ongoing contraction seen since the beginning of the year, while large firms, at 52.0, were largely responsible for the steady headline figure with medium-sized and small firms recording readings of 50.0 and 48.6.
South Korea also posted its monthly PMI, registering at 48.8 falling from 50.3 last month and we had a slew of Japanese data earlier in the morning that was mixed at the service (deteriorating, due to consumer demand) and corporate (increased sentiment) levels.