[spangry]

Not a dumb question at all. Markets often behave irrationally, but they aren't that stupid. Market expectations (-14.5% export growth) definitely factor in seasonality. So it's very bad news.

To make matters worse, import growth (-13.8%) was also lower than market expectations (-12%).

As mentioned below, this suggests contracting overseas demand for Chinese exports AND contracting domestic consumption. Which adds up to lower than expected Chinese economic production.

We'll probably see another Chinese stimulus package soon. Hopefully they manage to deploy it without exacerbating the capital mis-allocation and higher private debt that the previous one caused (mostly poured into residential real-estate construction and speculation).