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China’s manufacturing activity fell for a third consecutive month in July, according to an official survey, increasing pressure on policymakers to speed up stimulus measures to boost the world’s second-biggest economy.

The country’s official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index came in at 49.4, in line with a Bloomberg poll of analysts’ forecasts and down from 49.5 in June. A reading above 50 marks an expansion compared with the previous month.

China’s politburo this week called for faster implementation of a stimulus programme, and the central bank has cut interest rates as the government tries to meet its economic growth target of 5 per cent for this year.

China’s economy is suffering from weak domestic consumption as a prolonged property slowdown and tighter government control over business undermine confidence.

At its recent five-yearly strategic policy meeting, Beijing emphasised high-end manufacturing and an upgraded industrial sector over property and household consumption.

The non-manufacturing PMI came in at 50.2 in July, still in growth territory and in line with analysts’ forecasts of 50.2 but down from a reading of 50.5 in June.

China’s National Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday that among the sub-indices, production was 50.1, down 0.5 from the previous month but still indicating a slight expansion.

The new order index, however, was 49.3, down 0.2 from the previous month and indicating that the demand in the manufacturing market had declined.

Employment in manufacturing and non-manufacturing was below the 50-mark, indicating weakness in the labour market.

Despite the struggling housing market, construction activity was in positive territory. Services were flat at 50, down from 50.2 the previous month, with some areas such as entertainment and sport booming while others such as retail and capital markets were in contraction territory.

“Lower commodity prices and steel production point to weakened growth momentum of manufacturing activity in July,” Goldman Sachs wrote in a report released ahead of the figures.

It attributed the lower services PMI to “the persistent weakness in property and financial services sectors”.

Morgan Stanley analysts said ahead of the figures that deleveraging among local government financing vehicles and in the housing sector were posing “gravitational drags on the economy”. Emerging industries — electric vehicles and green energy — were also suffering overcapacity.

They said policymakers were attempting to counter fiscal tightening by widening the use of the proceeds of long-term government bond issuance to support consumption and capital expenditure. But “policy pass-through may take time”, they wrote.

China’s government has issued Rmb1tn ($138bn) of ultra long-term special government bonds to fund infrastructure and other projects and provide a stimulus to the economy.

It has also announced schemes to revitalise the property market, including a Rmb300bn programme to buy unsold housing unveiled in May.

But the real estate measures have been seen as too little to have a large impact, and economists have said that more structural measures are needed to restore investor confidence and stimulate consumption.

NPR is in Paris for the 2024 Summer Olympics. For more of our coverage from the games head to our latest updates.

PARIS — The U.S. men’s soccer team is making the most of its appearance at the Paris Summer Games.

The squad hadn’t been at an Olympics since 2008 — and now it’s advanced to the quarterfinals after defeating Guinea 3-0 in Saint-Etienne.

The U.S. started these Summer Games with a shaky loss to host nation France in the opening match of group play. But then the Americans bounced back to defeat New Zealand and now Guinea.

At the Olympics, men’s teams have roster restrictions which require nearly all players to be under 23 years old. Against Guinea, the U.S. got a pair of goals from 21-year-old Kevin Paredes and another from Djordje Mihailovic.

With the victory, the U.S. advances to the knockout stage for the first time since Sydney Olympics in 2000. U.S. Soccer notes it’s just the second time the U.S. Olympic men’s team has made it out of the group since the current tournament format was introduced at Rome 1960.

The U.S. will next play Morocco, which upset Argentina in group play. The match kicks off Friday at the Parc des Princes in Paris.

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Nvidia shares sank by as much as 8 per cent on Tuesday as a heavy sell-off in chipmaking stocks reignited ahead of a number of closely watched earnings reports from Big Tech companies this week.

The Silicon Valley chipmaker, which is the dominant provider of the powerful processors needed for building artificial intelligence systems, has fallen more than 20 per cent, cutting its market capitalisation by almost $750bn, since it briefly became the world’s most valuable publicly traded company last month.

Other chip stocks followed. Arm, the semiconductor designer that has also been a big beneficiary of investors’ enthusiasm for AI-related stocks this year, was down about 7 per cent in late-afternoon trading in New York.

Both companies are still more than double their value this time last year, driven by a wave of capital spending by the likes of Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Meta to build out the technical underpinnings of AI.

Ahead of Microsoft’s earnings report after Tuesday’s market close, traders were fretting that profit expectations for companies involved in AI are too high and that capital spending is running far ahead of returns.

“We’ve seen money flow out of Big Tech, mostly I think because they have had an incredible run-up, and that of course gave room for a little bit of a sell-off,” Daniel Newman, chief executive of The Futurum Group, told the Financial Times. “Sector rotation, continued economic uncertainty, elections, geopolitics, and concerns around China” had all contributed to Nvidia’s fall.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index was down 1.3 per cent while the benchmark S&P 500 was 0.6 per cent lower. Shares in chipmakers AMD and Intel — which report earnings this week — were also trading lower.

“There’s a lot of angst in the market ahead of reporting,” said Emmanuel Cau, head of European equity strategy at Barclays. Apple, Amazon and Meta will also be publishing their quarterly numbers later this week.

He added that investors were also cautious ahead of a busy few days for central banks, with interest rate decisions by the Bank of Japan, Federal Reserve and Bank of England all due.

Investors have been selling tech companies in recent weeks, pushing the Nasdaq down about 9 per cent from its peak in mid-July. The index suffered its worst day since 2022 last week after results from Alphabet and Tesla sparked investor worries about the size and timing of likely returns from the so-called Magnificent Seven tech companies’ vast investments in AI.

AI-related stocks have driven the stock market rally this year. Despite recent pullbacks, the Nasdaq and the broader S&P 500 are still ahead by roughly 14 per cent.

“Market participants used this morning’s equity gains to unload stocks in the afternoon ahead of pivotal announcements from the Fed and Bank of Japan tomorrow — and four of the Mag Seven reporting this week,” said José Torres, senior economist at Interactive Brokers.

“Bullish players will be aiming for a bright picture on the future of AI in Mag Seven earnings calls.”