China

Back in November, just as the world's attention was focusing on China for long-overdue reasons including a slowing economy, debt at well over 300% of GDP, an artificially high exchange rate whose devaluation is causing market shockwaves around the globe, a reflating housing bubble, a burst stock market bubble and non-performing loans, as high as 20%, when we pointed out the one "most under-reported" risk virtually nobody was talking about: Chinese employment.

With markets happy to put February in the history books because it marked the fourth consecutive monthly decline in global stocks, we move on to March 1st, which doubles down as 'Super Tuesday' in the US when Trump's presidential candidacy will almost certainly be sealed and a day in which stocks decided to join the super fun by super surging overnight on nothing but bad global macro and economic which however was promptly ignored and instead the focus was on ongoing central bank intervention and even more jawboning.

Via PandaHedge.com,

The price of home price in China’s tier one cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen) started another around of rally in the last couple months, and became “crazy” in Feb as described by the Chinese who form lines to buy the apartments everywhere.

When I saw this online commercial as below, I cannot help asking myself: Really?  This place can be sold as a “home” (I thought it’s just a kitchen), and at this price ($9k per sqf)?

Following USD strength last week, China has come back to work after the disappointment of the Shanghai non-accord and weakened the Yuan fix by 0.2% - the most since January 7th.

This move follows pressure from offshore Yuan weakness since traders returned from Golden Week - driving the onshore-offshore spread out to its widest since The PBOC stepped in and stomped the shorts.

Back in early 2014, we warned that the Chinese housing bubble has burst, promptly followed by official confirmation by China's National Bureau of Statistics which showed that in the subsequent several months Chinese home prices and transactions plunged. Since then, however, China - whose economy has been on a steep downward spiral - has desperately scrambled to reflate this most important to its economy bubble, because as a reminder in China three quarters of all household assets are in Real Estate...