Talk of a quick yuan devaluation -- Policymakers feel the slow slide is doing more harm than good

There's a rumour that the PBOC is under pressure to deliver a sharp yuan devaluation.

It seems to me they're fighting the headlines here. When the allow the yuan to devalue slowly, there are headlines saying 'Eight straight days of declines' even though the year-to-date move is only 1.48%.

YTD:

It's like they can't take the pressure.

In the past year the yuan is a mid-performer. It's been stronger than the euro.

One year:

China is weakening and they have nothing to apologize for in terms of letting the yuan respond to the market. The IMF says the yuan is fairly valued.

Yet they seem apologetic for it and aren't able to handle the blowback from a few upset central bankers and US politicians.

The pussyfooting around everything right now is the worst thing for confidence. It's the same thing with putting in circuit breakers and then taking them out. Or putting on stock selling bans and then waiting three days before they expire to put them back on again.

Jittery leadership is often worse than no leadership at all.