Duo of Weak Asia Data

Heading into the work week, some economic indicators were just released for Asia...none of which were all that encouraging.

• Japan Tankan Business Sentiment
• As expected with the strong yen and weakening China growth, the BoJ's quarterly Tankan survey had a -3 result, vs -1 in June.  This indicates pessimism from large manufacturers for the short term, 

• China Manufacturing Activity Index 
• PMI index came in at 49.8 for September, which is higher than the 49.2 August reading but still indicates a contracting manufacturing industry.  Overall, not a surprise as China is known to be softening.  So the 49.8 reading is relatively neutral as it doesn't look to be dropping further.  

As of this writing, Japan Nikkei 225 Index is down 0.83% on this result.  And the US stock futures?  Not so great so far but not enough of a change to really say much of what'll happen in the morning.  My expectation is still some weakness this week (as always, this is in the absence of market altering news).

  

Americas

Index Future	Future Date	Last	Net Change	Open	High	Low	Time
DJIA INDEX	Dec12	13,322.00	-33.00	13,358.00	13,365.00	13,317.00	22:59:44
S&P 500	Dec12	1,428.80	-5.40	1,431.00	1,434.40	1,428.10	22:57:10
NASDAQ 100	Dec12	2,781.50	-10.50	2,785.25	2,790.50	2,780.75	23:08:24