1 China's official manufacturing PMI for April is 49.0, expected 49.8, previous value 50.5;
(the lowest since December 2023)
The non-manufacturing PMI is 50.4, expected 50.6, previous value 50.8;
The composite PMI is 50.2, previous value 51.4.

2 As can be seen in the accompanying picture, most first-tier cities have experienced a comprehensive slowdown in consumption, with high living costs forcing many workers out.
Yesterday I saw a comment saying a social media influencer mentioned that the poor all eat takeout... This really shows a narrow imagination. Those who are truly broke eat instant noodles and eggs. They get their protein, carbs, and fats all in one.

3 By the way, there's a more interesting phenomenon: the lowest price for instant noodles (like Uni-President and Master Kong, which are first-tier brands) is already half of what it was four years ago. It shows that even eating instant noodles...

4 A few days ago, the credit card bill was over 400, and sometimes I wonder why consumption is so sluggish in middle age. A friend sent me a passage that I found very interesting, so I’ll share it here.

Diversification is the key path for consumption/products/types—demand expansion.
For an individual, basic consumption in clothing, food, housing, and transportation is actually quite limited.
For example, education indirectly leads to heavy consumption/investment in housing, fundamentally driven by imagination and hope.
To spark demand, you need to provide something beyond the product itself.
The GDP contribution of cultural entertainment is small, but it carries meanings that industrial products cannot provide.

5 Our cultural products, especially the output of classic cultural products, are lacking, which directly leads to the difficulty in consuming around the meaning itself.

You want to buy a figurine, but first you have to like this anime... The domestic anime from the last 20 years is disappointing; Nezha came too late, and there aren't enough animated series to satisfy demand. Look at the cards kids play with; they are Ultraman and My Little Pony. What do they have to do with domestic animation?

You want to go to a bar to watch a game at night, but the CBA has been a mess for so many years. It’s hard to come by a decent esports match, and now I can't even get it on TV unless I ask the boss to install Tencent Video?

When you were young, you wanted to play something, and someone said you were not ambitious, that playing leads to loss of ambition, but in fact, everyone can enjoy playing well, which is what ambition is about; otherwise, what's the point of life?

You may be working hard without knowing whose ambition it is, but at least enjoying yourself is the ambition of entertainment workers.

The most painful thing is the 8090 generation, half of whom gained wealth through real estate, but a large portion of them lost everything by doubling down in the market.
Some people accumulated wealth through equity options and capital games, but half of them lost everything in the casino.
Of course, none of this is the root of the pain; the root of the pain is that they once were wealthy, or witnessed those around them becoming wealthy...