A hard landing may be in progress as data continues to soften.

I’m still thinking July and August data will be telling.

China’s Economic Growth Targets Cut at Daiwa, Inflation Raised

August 14 (Bloomberg) — China’s 2012 GDP growth target was cut to 8.5 percent year-on-year from 9 percent at Daiwa Capital Markets, which “weaker external demand growth” and to the government’s “recent efforts” to lower investment growth.
A double-dip recession in Europe and the U.S. would affect growth “even more negatively,” while China would be “unlikely” to announce a big stimulus package, analysts at Daiwa led by Mingchun Sun wrote in a report dated Aug. 12. They raised their 2011 consumer-price inflation forecast to 5.4 percent year-on-year from 4.9 percent.
They also revised down their 2012 export growth forecast to 10 percent year-on-year from 15 percent and lowered their import growth target to 13 percent from 18 percent.