Profits at China’s industrial firms fell 1.1% in January-July y/y (prior +1.0%)

Weekend data out of China’s National Bureau of Statistics, a soft reading for Industrial Profits in July.

Profits at industrial firms in China for the first seven months of the year (i.e. January – July) fell 1.1% y/y

• this compares with the +1.0% for January – June

Earlier this month we had the July data for retail sales, industrial output and investment all missing economist estimates. The economy is beset by woes from ongoing Covid disruptions (for example, factory output and activities in major manufacturing hubs like Shenzhen and Tianjin were hit during July as renewed COVID curbs were imposed) and the deepening, contagious, slump in the property sector.

Looking ahead, officials in China are working to bolster growth, including:

• People’s Bank of China cuts to both one-year, five-year, and seven-day lending rates
• another 1 trillion yuan of funding, mainly directed at infrastructure spending

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Come Monday morning market openings I suspect the backwash from Powell at Jackson Hole on Friday will overshadow this data.