Chart Of The Day: Trading The Aussie On China's Economic Weakness

 | Jan 15, 2019 02:01

Data released overnight shows that U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs have taken a significant bite out of both China's imports, which dropped 7.6% in December, and exports, which fell 4.4%, the worst results for both metrics since 2016, before the U.S. presidential election. Indeed, economic data from the world’s second largest economy has been consistently slowing.

During the final days of 2018, both China's private and official manufacturing metrics slipped into contraction territory. Investors, already jittery about the outlook for a global as well as American economic slowdown, dumped stocks and currencies tied to the Chinese economy, including the Australian dollar. Australia, China's largest trading partner, is directly impacted by its economic fortunes. As such the Aussie is often pressured when Chinese data disappoints.