China reported weaker than expected July activity data Tuesday, accompanied by news that Beijing would no longer publish youth unemployment data. Wong said he was most concerned about month-to-month decline of China's retail sales and weak infrastructure investments, which suggested lack of funding from local governments. China's industrial output and retail sales growth both slowed from a month earlier to a year-on-year pace of 3.7% and 2.5% respectively, missing expectations. If the decline begins to accelerate, it will feed back on weaker consumer confidence and weigh on already feeble retail sales growth. All three major U.S. equity indexes ended Tuesday lower, after a stronger-than-expected report on U.S. retail sales data.

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Persons: Issei Kato, HONG KONG, Australia's, Redmond Wong, Wong, Hang, John Milroy, Ord Minnett, Tina Teng, Ord Minnett's Milroy, Brent, Kane Wu, Lincoln Organizations: REUTERS, Japan's Nikkei, Saxo Markets, Dow Jones, Nasdaq, Fed, New Zealand, CMC, Canada, BHP, Thomson Locations: Tokyo, Japan, HONG, Asia, Asia Pacific, China, Beijing, Greater China, Wedneday