Japan's mini crash: Blame China, not just Ben But just how over-cooked, we found out on Thursday... This was started by comments from Ben Bernanke, late on in his discussion with the Joint Economic Committee, but the real damage came at 09.45 Beijing time, when the HSBC flash China manufacturing PMI appeared... Key points  Flash China Manufacturing PMI™ at 49.6 (50.4 in April). Seven-month low.  Flash China Manufacturing Output Index at 51.0 (51.1 in April). Three-month low. A quick word from HSBC's Hongbin Qu: A sequential slowdown is likely in the middle of 2Q, casting downside risk to China's fragile growth recovery. Moreover, the further signs of labour market slackness call for more policy support. Beijing still has fiscal ammunition to do so. Falls in the Nikkei >7 per cent are few and far between. At pixel, the Nikkei 225 future was trading, erratically, just above 14100. So the damage has extended.