China's factory activity contracts for 8th month in November despite trade war truce

China’s factory activity contracted for the eighth straight month in November, according to an official survey on Sunday, underscoring challenges for the country’s economy despite the U.S.-China trade truce. A U.S. tariff cut earlier this month likely would mean that Chinese exports could gain competitiveness in the U.S. market, but it may be too early to say whether exports have regained momentum following the trade truce. The fading boost from the consumer goods trade-in policies may be weighing on domestic demand for manufactured goods and “signals on domestic demand have been mixed,” said Zichun Huang, China economist at Capital Economics, last week.