Global Manufacturing is... Surprise!... Contracting.

Here's how to read the following table. Under the "Status" column, if it shows "Contraction" then it's a bad thing.

Germany, Japan, France, Italy, Australia are all being taken down by the 4-year high S&P 500 global economy.

What's this? Even China's official manufacturing index (blue line) is showing contraction (HSBC's measurement is the red line).

Source: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/global-manufacturing-update-indicates-80-world-now-contraction
Source: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/china-manufacturing-pmi-lowest-march-2009-market-response-bad-good-so-far