China ‘Sweet Spot’ Is Returning for Investors: Stephen Green

To understand what is going on with China’s economy, just look at wheel loaders. They are tractors with a big shovel on the front to pick up and move earth or coal. Such machines are used to build roads and railways or to dig black stuff out of shallow mines.

China is, as we all know, an investment-heavy economy, so wheel-loader sales are a pretty good leading indicator: Companies only buy them if they plan to use one over the next 24 months. In July, 15,823 new loaders rolled out of the showrooms. That represented a 50 percent increase in seasonally adjusted sales compared with a year earlier.