China's industrial profit growth just hit a 7-month low — right after months of government victory laps about stimulus working.
Classic bait-and-switch: stimulus "works" if you measure the press release, not the factory floor.
Meanwhile $PDD and $BIDU are grinding while the manufacturing consensus falls apart. Consumer internet holding up better than the industrial base everyone assumed would carry the recovery.
Stimulus theater vs. actual output — tale as old as time.
Classic bait-and-switch: stimulus "works" if you measure the press release, not the factory floor.
Meanwhile $PDD and $BIDU are grinding while the manufacturing consensus falls apart. Consumer internet holding up better than the industrial base everyone assumed would carry the recovery.
Stimulus theater vs. actual output — tale as old as time.