2016 Off To A Miserable Start: Asian Stocks Drop; Futures Slide After China PMI Tumbles On Dire Commentary

• Japan Nikkei is down 2.94%, Shanghai CSI down 3.94%, HongKong HangSeng down 2.3% midday.
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• 2016 Off To A Miserable Start: Asian Stocks Drop; Futures Slide After China PMI Tumbles On Dire Commentary
  by Tyler Durden, www.zerohedge.com 
  Earlier in the session, after the surge in oil prices on fears of a spike in belligerence between Saudi Arabia and Iran, bulls were hopeful that after a poor close to 2015, at least the first trading day of 2016 would set a positive mood: after all, if there is one thing war is good for, it is to lift stock markets. And it did… for about 3 hours.
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  Then moments ago, Caixin Media and Markit Economics released China’s December manufacturing purchasing managers’ index.  It was a doozy, falling to 48.2 from 48.6 in November, well below the 48.9 consensus estimate and even lower than the 49.6 printed a year ago, its tenth consecutive month in contraction territory and the lowest reading since September 2015.
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  The trend is clearly not one’s friend, especially if one is part of Beijing’s political oligarchy.
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  As the report noted, there was a renewed contraction of output, with total new work continuing to fall, while new export work declines for first time in three months; finally, companies continued to shed staff as the greatest threat facing China, a massive labor revolt, continues to slowly simmer. The details were quite frankly, stunning, in their negativity: as if Markit wanted to paint China’s economy in the worst way possible:
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  read more.

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