Investing Daily Printable PDF Last April, I identified three companies as economic bellwethers for the Chinese economy (“An Early Warning Signal for the Stock Market”). I theorized that the performance of those three stocks would be indicative of the health of the overall global economy. I dubbed this trio of companies the “China Three Stock Economic Activity Index.” What I wanted was a very simple way of tracking the direction of China’s economy throughout the coronavirus pandemic. For that purpose, I chose Australian oil and mining producer BHP Group (NYSE: BHP). BHP provides China with much of the iron ore used in its steel production. If China buys less iron ore from BHP, that probably means that demand for steel production is declining.