The brief encounter with a 'recovery' that China's economic data enjoyed in the first half of 2017 has evaporated as the reality of a collapsing credit impulse strikes across the board. Retail Sales, Fixed Asset Investment, and Industrial Production all missed expectations and slowed dramatically.
Tonight's bid China data dump to ignore includes:
In a move that will likely cause at least a few frowns in Beijing, Bloomberg reports that President Trump blocked a Chinese-backed buyer from acquiring chipmaker Lattice Semiconductor, not only a "personal rebuke that bodes poorly for several other Chinese buyers seeking U.S. security clearance for their acquisitions", but also a symbolic escalation of the "cold" trade war with China, hinting that the Trump administration will no longer allow China to acquire advanced US intellectual property, especially when national security may be on the line.
Authored by Eric Peters via EricPetersAutos.com,
Since they can’t sell electric cars – not enough of them, anyhow – and not without subsidies so huge they amount to outright bribes – the solution appears to be to outlaw all cars except electric cars.
This is no joke.
Authored by Dave Forest via OilPrice.com,
One of the biggest energy stories this year has been Russia’s Rosneft buying India’s Essar Oil - giving the Russian company a firm grip on one of the world’s biggest emerging oil and gas markets.
And this past week, that story got more complex. With Rosneft striking another big deal — drawing in another heavyweight energy nation.
China.
Pretty soon, China bears will be as rare as the Giant Panda.
At least that’s what Bloomberg suggested in a story about how Chinese markets have continued to defy proclamations that country’s economy would soon collapse in an avalanche of bad debt, exposing rampant corporate fraud. Or that a rash of outflows and the pressure of short sellers would force a massive yuan devaluation. Or that the exposure of rampant fraud and abuse in its corporate sector would tank local markets, which rely heavily on shady investment products.