April marked the first month since July 2008 that the Chinese purchasing manager's index showed expansion. The number of new orders increases also for the first time in nine months. Export orders continued to contract, but at the slowest pace in many months. GDP growth is also forecast to increase now for the second quarter. Here's an article on all this from Forbes:
http://www.forbes.com/2009/05/04/china-manufacturing-orders-markets-economy-stimulus.html
The news does seem to be improving on both sides of the globe. Equity markets are way up, of course, over the last several weeks. I believe if we can get past the swine flu scare and into summer, things will continue to look better. US consumerism may not rebound to where it was (which is a good thing as the savings rate may stabilize in positive territory), but the economy will adjust over a longer period.
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