As for timing, its been all over the place. Normally I'd expect at or around 0200 GMT but ... yeah, its been unpredictable
The previous data release was just after 0300 GMT, so given my susceptibility to recency bias, I'm going with 0300 GMT
Yuan terms data usually comes first ...
China trade balance for February: expected CNY -68.9bn, prior was CNY 135.8bn
- Exports y/y: expected +7.4%, prior was +6.0%
- Imports y/y: expected 1.2%, prior was 30.2%
USD terms
Trade balance expected -5.7bn, prior was $ 20.35bn
- Exports: expected 11.0%, prior was 11.1%
- Imports: expected is 8.0%, prior was 36.8%
Note - the report today will be impacted by the Lunar new Year holidays ... any results away from expectations will thus be explained with "Oh, this is distortion due to timing of the holidays". Same as the January data was. Marekts will likely disregard the data, or failing that, add January and February together .
