US equity futures plunged (Dow -140) * * * Following Xi's earlier speech reassuring Yellen that the "Chinese economy is stable," and the Yuan tumbled 0.25% against the USD ahead of the data. China's Flash Manufacturing PMI printed a disastrous 47.0 (against expectations of a slight rise to 47.5 from August's 47.3). This is the lowest print since March 2009. The Yuan was tumbling heading into the data... *OFFSHORE YUAN DROPS 0.25% VS DOLLAR BEFORE CHINA CAIXIN PMI Then the data hit.. *CHINA CAIXIN FLASH MANUFACTURING PMI AT LOWEST SINCE MARCH 2009 *CHINA SEPT. CAIXIN FLASH MANUFACTURING PMI AT 47; EST. 47.5 With across the board weakness... Commenting on the Flash China General Manufacturing PMI™ data, Dr. He Fan, Chief Economist at Caixin Insight Group said: “The Caixin Flash China General Manufacturing PMI for September is 47.0, down from 47.3 in August. The decline indicates the nation’s manufacturing industry has reached a crucial stage in the structural transformation process. Overall, the fundamentals are good. The principle reason for the weakening of manufacturing is tied to previous changes in factors related to external demand and prices. Fiscal expenditures surged in August, pointing to stronger government efforts on the fiscal policy front. Patience may be needed for policies designed to promote stabilization to demonstrate their effectiveness.” Maybe if only the Fed hiked just a little the global economy wouldn't be headed for recession — zerohedge (@zerohedge) https://twitter.com/zerohedge/status/646501537271934976!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); Charts: Bloomberg