Randomly Noted

The Dow’s overnight surge is prompting similar stock market rises across Asia-Pacific. Hooray! Happy days are here again. But – you knew there’d be a “but”  – today (11 March) has brought more ugly data from last month: Japan’s machinery orders declined in February for the fourth straight month; as Dow Jones Newswires reports, it’s Japan’s longest stretch of consecutive monthly machinery order declines on record. We’re awaiting China trade data – exports and imports - from February; but already  the commerce minister, Chen Deming, is warning they’ll come in worse than January’s already dismal numbers. Malaysia’s stimulus package, unveiled Tuesday evening, is giving fodder to skeptics who suspect it’s mere populism by a weakened ruling party that wants to stay in power.  Dow Jones columnist Rosalind Mathieson weighs in wisely on this issue in her daily “Money Talks” column; The WSJA’s editorial page addresses the political aspect. More Wednesday musings after we see China trade results later. UPDATE: China has just reported lousy export – and somewhat less-lousy import - data- for the January-February period. (It’s important to look at the two months together because of the Lunar New Year quirk I mentioned yesterday.) More interesting are the fixed asset investment (FAI) data showing a big chunk of Beijing’s economic stimulus money seems to have been committed to all manner of infrastructure projects. Once the money’s actually dispensed and workers get their pay, it could very well have a beneficial effect on the domestic economy.  THIS JUST IN: Beijing has just now unsheathed its secret weapon, key to solving the global economic downturn: “*PBOC Signs CNY20B Currency Swap Pact With Belarus Ctrl Bank.” For the uninitiated, PBOC=People’s Bank of China aka China’s central bank. Belarus = a country located somewhere near Czar Putin’s realm.