Daily Business Report

Risk on, risk off.

One day after traders were greeted by a sea of green - on potential world war news - we are back to the sea of red as global stocks struggled and safe haven bets were back in play on Friday with German bond yields plumbing record lows after the latest dismal Chinese data dump sparked fears about the health of the global economy and concerns of a new U.S.-Iran confrontation intensified (which, by the way, was somehow bullish for risk yesterday).

Beijing May activity reported overnight was very weak and painted a fairly gloomy picture of the world’s second largest economy as the trade war with the United States starts to bite. May industrial output growth slowed to a more than 17-year low, the weakest since since 2002, and well below expectations, while fixed-asset investment also fell short of forecasts. Retail sales growth accelerated and surprised to the upside however.

Industrial Output for May: 5.0%, est. +5.4% (range +5.1% to +6.4%, 35 economists), down from +5.4% last month.

May retail sales +8.6% y/y; est. +8.1% April +7.2%

Jan.-May fixed-asset investment excluding rural households +5.6% y/y; est. +6.1% (range +5.2% to +6.5%, 34 economists). Jan.-April +6.1%

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