90 seconds at 9 am: Strong Chinese factory production, more Fed tapering talk, Big Japanese companies doing well

Here's our summary of the key news from over the weekend in 90 seconds at 9 am including news the latest official Chinese economic data is leading to suggestions the world’s second biggest economy may have bottomed out.

Chinese factory production rose a more than expected 9.7% in July, year-on-year. Economists had expected an 8.9% rise.

Retail sales rose 13.2%, and fixed-asset investment - excluding rural households grew 20.1% in the first seven months of the year. Consumer prices rose 2.7% in July.

Meanwhile, in the United States Wall Street completed its worst week since June last week amid suggestions the Federal Reserve may begin tapering off its Quantitative Easing programme from September.

The S&P 500 Index ended down 1.1% for the week. The Fed’s US$85 billion monthly bond buying programme has helped push the S&P 500 up more than 18% so far this year.

However, Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher reiterated the Fed remained open to reducing its purchases from September if economic data keeps improving.

And in Japan the massive quantitative easing programme underway there appears to be paying off for the country’s major companies. Bloomberg reports Japan’s biggest listed companies doubled their earnings in the June quarter from the equivalent quarter last year.

This came as the yen fell 5% against the US dollar in the quarter. The yen is now down 20% versus the greenback over the past 12 months boosting earnings for Japanese companies from overseas.

The Bank of Japan's aiming to expand its balance sheet from ¥158 trillion at the end of 2012 to ¥290 trillion by the end of 2014. This comes as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe strives to end 15 years of deflation in Japan through monetary easing and fiscal stimulus.

*David Chaston is on holiday this week.