Moody's trims China outlook

<p>Kia ora,</p><p>Welcome to Wednesday’s Economy Watch where we follow the economic events and trends that affect Aotearoa/New Zealand.</p><p>I'm David Chaston and this is the international edition from Interest.co.nz.</p><p>And today we lead with news Moody's has downgraded the Chinese economy's outlook.</p><p>First up today however there was a <a href="https://www.globaldairytrade.info/en/product-results/"><strong>dairy auction</strong></a> overnight and that came in with a minor +1.6% gain in USD terms, although only a +0.5% rise in NZD terms. Rather oddly, most of the <a href="https://mcusercontent.com/b8a03199b83b7d3f31d0f2086/files/2b28dc52-a67b-764f-377d-020ad50594a4/GDT_345.pdf" target="_blank"><strong>major components managed better rises</strong></a>. Cheddar cheese recovered +9.7%, SMP was up +1.2% and WMP rose +2.1% from the prior event two weeks ago. This auction won't be changing minds about farm gate payouts, but at least it wasn't negative.</p><p>In the US the news is quite mixed. Starting with the positives, the <a href="https://www.ismworld.org/supply-management-news-and-reports/reports/ism-report-on-business/services/november/" target="_blank"><strong>ISM services PMI</strong></a> expanded faster and ny more than expected. A feature is that it led by faster expanding new order levels. The internationally-benchmarked <a href="https://www.pmi.spglobal.com/Public/Home/PressRelease/36ea7291954b47ec958597de1f1ba59a" target="_blank"><strong>S&PGlobal (ex Markit) one</strong></a> also reported a pick up in expansion and better new order levels, but at a lower level that the ISM one.</p><p>However the <a href="https://www.the-lmi.com/november-2023-logistics-managers-index.html" target="_blank"><strong>LMI logistics survey</strong></a> revealed a contracting sector in November quite a sharp turn down from October. But at least inventory levels and freight costa are reducing, which is probably a good thing for them.</p><p>Also falling however are job openings. <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jo