China's manufacturing sector is doing a bit better than expected.
The country's flash manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI) unexpectedly climbed to a four-month high of 50.1 in February from 49.7 in January.
Economists were expecting the index to fall to 49.5.
Any reading above 50 signals expansion, so this is marginally good news.
"Domestic demand firmed while new export orders contracted for the first time since April 2014," HSBC's Hongbin Qu said. "Both input and output prices remain in contraction."
"Today's data point to a marginal improvement in the Chinese manufacturing sector going into the Chinese New Year period in February," Qu added. "However, domestic economic activity is likely to remain sluggish and external demand looks uncertain. We believe more policy easing is still warranted at the current stage to support growth."
Keep in mind, this is a preliminary estimate of this report. The final version will be released on March 2.
Markets in Asia are up with Japan's Nikkei up 0.1% and Australia's S&P/ASX up 0.2%.
