A racing pigeon named Bolt officially became the most expensive pigeon in the world earlier this week when a Chinese businessman bought him at auction for $400,000.

The pigeon, who is named after Olympic superstar Usain Bolt, sold at Belgium’s Pipa auction house, according to the AP. The previous record price for a pigeon was $322,000.

Once in China, where pigeon-racing has boomed in recent years, Bolt won’t even compete. He’ll be used for breeding, the AP reports.

We reached out to the auction house for photos of Bolt. He’s a nice-looking bird, but it’s pretty hard to believe someone thought he was worth $400,000.

China is about more than massive infrastructure build-outs.

Some things have to come down.

“This was the scene in Wuhan as three-and-a-half kilometers of elevated road came down,” wrote Bloomberg about this incredible demolition footage.  “The viaduct was only built in 1997 as part of the main highway between Shanghai and Tibet.

Check out this video from Bloomberg.com:

Chinese consumer prices climbed 2.4% year-over-year (YoY) in April. This was just above expectations for a 2.3% rise.

 Meanwhile, producer prices fell 2.6% YoY. Analysts had forecast a 2.3% fall. 

China has set an inflation target of 3.5% for 2013. Markets will be watching food inflation in particular.

“According to Ministry of Commerce, the weekly wholesale food prices seemed to stabilize from mid-April after declining 7 weeks in a row post the Lunar New Year holiday,” he wrote in a note earlier this month. “Still, the average prices so far in April have fallen by 0.9% from March (in particular, pork prices dropped by 6.7%).”

Last month we saw pork prices fall 5.5%. The government has been purchasing pork for its national pork reserve to help bolster prices.

Lowest result since August 2011.

Note, graph does not include today’s result:

Source: Markit/HSBC

Upcoming data for release today:

• 0030GMT Australia TD Securities/Melbourne Institute Inflation Gauge. Prior 0.2% m/m and 2.1% y/y
• 0130GMT Australia retail sales for March. Prior was 1.3%, expected is 0.1% (seasonally adjusted m/m figures). The retail sales figures are going to be the most important of the Australian data releases today. Any result above expectations is going to cause the market to rethink the prospects for an RBA rate cut tomorrow.
• Also at 0130GMT is Australian ANZ Job Advertisements for April. Prior was -1.5 %
• At 0145GMT out of China we get the  HSBC Services PMI. Prior was 54.3

Work 410

Jim Chanos, Kynikos Associates, shares his perspective on the markets; institutional shorting; and why he believes China’s economic troubles are getting worse.

China Credit Bubble Trouble: Chanos

At 0135GMT we get the April read for China MNI Business Sentiment. The survey results are released on the last Friday of the month, with flash readings a week beforehand.

• The April flash was 59.3
• Prior readings were 58.2 in March, 61.0 in February, and 55.2 in January.

The indicator is of secondary importance to the market, but any big departure from the flash reading last week could have some impact.

HSBC China April Flash Manufacturing PMI is at 0145GMT; this release is a focus for the AUD market. Last week’s Chinese GDP figure came in below expectations and was a bit of a shock for the market. The market will be looking today at this HSBC release to try to assess the likely potential for Chinese economic growth.

• The March figure came in at 51.6
• And expected today for April is 51.6

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