China exchange traded funds were set for a lower open in the U.S. on Thursday after soft manufacturing data.
A China purchasing managers’ index from HSBC fell below 50. “We expect industrial growth to decelerate in the coming months as tightening measures continue to filter through,” said Hongbin Qu, China chief economist at HSBC, according to WSJ.com.
The latest PMI reading is a 28-month low, according to Pragmatic Capitalism. “While the world is busy obsessing over the debt crisis in America and Europe there is new evidence that the most important economic region in the world is slowing,” wrote Cullen Roche.
The iShares FTSE China 25 (NYSEArca: FXI) was off 0.6% in Thursday’s premarket.