China's official Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) came in at 48.8 in May as against the 49.2 contraction seen in April, the latest data published by the country’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Wednesday. The market consensus for a reading of 49.4.

The NBS Services PMI dropped to 54.5 in May, compared with a solid 56.4 figure reported in April and beating expectations of 50.7.

AUD/USD reaction

The downbeat print of the Chinese Manufacturing PMI smashed the Aussie Dollar, with AUD/USD shedding roughly 40 pips on the data release. The spot is trading at 0.6508, at the time of writing, down 0.15% on the day.