by Jeffrey P. Snider
Alhambra Partners
It makes for yet another huge dichotomy, but one which is curiously absent from any mainstream commentary. As noted earlier today, Chinese imports were pleasantly surprising for the mainstream as they were just about flat year-over-year. The fact that oil imports surged by nearly 40% seemed only to confirm that whatever might be happening on the export side (another dichotomy left unexplained) at least Chinese internal “stimulus” might be finally paying off. It is entirely wishful thinking.
Estimated oil demand in China has actually declined recently according to UPI (via ZeroHedge):