CHINA'S OFFICIAL PMI UNEXPECTEDLY FALLS, EMPLOYMENT SLUMPS

China's NBS just published its official manufacturing PMI report, and it's a bit of a disappointment.

The headline number unexpectedly slipped to 50.4 in January.

Economists were expecting an increase to 51.0 from 50.6 in December.

The good news: any reading above 50 signals expansion.

	Jan. 2013	Dec. 2012
PMI	50.4	50.6
Output	51.3	52.0
New Orders	51.6	51.2
New Export Orders	48.5	50.0
Backlogs of Work	44.4	45.9
Inventories of Finished Goods	47.4	49.4
Purchases Quantity	53.2	52.1
Imports	49.1	49.0
Input Prices	57.2	53.3
Inventories of Raw Materials	50.1	47.3
Employment	47.8	49.0
Supplier Delivery Times	50.0	48.8

Earlier this month, the January HSBC Flash PMI jumped to 51.9, a two-year high. HSBC's PMI reading is more tilted toward small and medium sized enterprises, which are a bit more cyclical than the large companies.

The PMI reports are big deals because for months people have questioning whether China would face a hard or soft landing. With the economy showing signs of re-acceleration again, people are looking for confirmation that the world's second largest economy is really picking up.

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