China Economy

From card carrying China bull James Laurenceson via BS: Xenophobic, even racist: that’s the accusation being levelled at federal Labor in its handling of the China Free Trade Agreement.

Cross-posted from Investing in Chinese Stocks.

From Deutsche via FTAlphaville: We believe the fiscal slide is now coming to its end, because the recovery of land sales seems to have firmed up and gathered momentum in recent months.

Shanghai is up 3.23% after reopening today but that disappointed the fruit loops driving the dead cat and shares have slowed.

By Leith van Onselen Find above an interesting video report aired on ABC’s The Business yesterday, taking a look inside China’s real estate bust, whereby years of over-building have left a huge glut of homes and commercial properties across many of China’s smaller cities.

From Fairfax: China’s foreign-exchange reserves fell by a record last quarter as the central bank sold dollars to support the yuan after a surprise devaluation spurred bearish bets on the currency.

Very.

From Deutsche: Our thesis over the last few years has basically been that the global financial system/economic fundamentals are so bad that its good for financial assets given it forces central banks into extraordinary stimulus and for them to continue to buy assets in never before seen volumes.

Cross-posted from Investing in Chinese Stocks Centaline says home sales through September 27 were up a very slight 0.43% in its 54-city survey, while CREIS reports home prices increase 0.28% in its 100-city survey.

China has released its official PMI and it showed that things are not at least getting worse any faster, coming in at 49.8.

From Capital Economics: The People’s Bank today published its three quarterly surveys – of 20,000 urban households (depositors) with bank accounts, 5,000 businesses and 3,100 banks.

From Westpac: The Westpac MNI China Consumer Sentiment Indicator increased 1.7pts from 116.5 in August to 118.2 in September.

With every investment bank and his dog expecting an H2 rebound in Chinese growth (for no apparent reason given the credit rebound has been literally Shanghaied by the stock market bail out), it is interesting to note a Chinese investment banks that expecting further deceleration instead.

From Citi’s Willem Buiter’s: Is China Leading the World into Recession?

From Bloomberg: China is on a path similar to the one that preceded Japan’s lost decade in the 1990s as the country’s debt level grows twice as fast as its economy, according to Jim Chanos, the hedge fund manager who predicted the 2001 collapse of Enron Corp.

The Caixin Flash PMI is out at 47 versus 47.5 expected and 47.3 last month.

There were several reasons for the overnight wipe out in miners but they add up to one thing in the end.

The abyss into which Australia’s freshly minted resources economy is digging has never been more clear than today.

From Barclays: An accurate picture of the scale of capital outflows along with new growth trend is crucial to understanding the extent of CNY depreciation needed and/or the sustainability of the market interventions/controls.

MB readers have been enjoying the knowledge that the Chinese property recovery, such as it is, is weak and bifurcated, as well as a largely useful economic figment that will not boost economic activity and commodity prices mush.

From Mac Bank: Cement prices are less volatile than steel but correlate strongly: Steel of course leads iron ore.