Recap of the 2nd manufacturing PMI from China for October - difficult divergence

The official manufacturing PMI from China released yesterday dropped deeper into contraction:

• China official PMIs for October. Manufacturing 49.3 (vs. expected 49.8),
• China manufacturing PMI recap - 6 months in contraction now

However the private Caixin/Markit manufacturing PMI release today (a different survey … if it was the same there'd be no point to it, right?) painted the opposite picture, its best for nearly 3 years, a beat, and deeper into expansion!

• China - Caixin/Markit Manufacturing PMI for October: 51.7 (expected 51.0, prior 51.4)

The Financial Times have a recap posted, gated but here if you can access it:

• The Caixin survey found that companies' output and new orders rose on the back of the first increase in new export orders in five months. It said that this was likely due to Washington exempting about 400 types of Chinese products from tariffs during the month.

It also quotes a take via Julian Evans-Pritchard, senior China economist at Capital Economics

• "A divergence in the official and unofficial PMIs makes it unusually difficult to gauge how the economy performed at the start of Q4,"

AUD liked the data, update: