Trade was the big news yesterday, with both the US and China reporting record balances, but in opposite directions.
Reuters reports the US trade and other news.
The U.S. trade deficit swelled to a record $66.1 billion in September... The Commerce Department's report on the international trade balance showed September's trade gap beat the previous record of $60.4 billion set in February and outstripped economists' forecasts of $61.0 billion. The deficit widened 11.4 percent from August, the largest monthly jump since June 2004...
The politically sensitive trade deficit with China hit a record $20.1 billion in September, as imports from that country rose to a record $23.3 billion... The Commerce Department also said oil import prices averaged a record $57.32 per barrel in September, helping push the trade deficit with OPEC countries to a record $9.1 billion...
[O]verall imports jumped 2.4 percent in September to a record $171.3 billion, led by the record value of petroleum imports. U.S. exports tumbled 2.6 percent to $105.2 billion, the biggest setback since the September 2001 attacks on the United States...
But oil prices have fallen of late.
Another report showed overall U.S. import prices unexpectedly fell 0.3 percent in October, their first decline since May, as petroleum costs eased, which could relieve some pressure on the Federal Reserve to keep raising rates.
Falling energy prices perhaps explains improving consumer sentiment.
The University of Michigan said its preliminary index of November consumer sentiment rose to 79.9 from 74.2 at the end of October, according to sources who saw the subscribers-only report. This was the first rise in the index since July and also topped Wall Street economists' forecasts for a rise to 76.0...
Unemployment appears to be only a mild drag.
Data from the Labor Department showed new claims for U.S. unemployment benefits rose by 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 326,000 in the week ended November 5 on a burst of jobless applications related to Hurricane Wilma.
On the other side of the Pacific, we get another sort of trade record.
China's trade surplus swelled to a record $12 billion...in October from $7.56 billion in September, the Beijing-based customs bureau said in a statement today. Exports rose 29.7 percent from a year earlier, led by electronics, outpacing a 23.4 percent gain in imports.
Brad Setser analyses both the US and China trade numbers.
China is not the major only economy seeing a widening trade surplus. On Wednesday, Germany had reported a wider trade surplus for September.
German exports...rose for a third month in September...gained 2.5 percent after rising a revised 2.4 percent in August... Germany's trade surplus widened to 15 billion euros ($17.6 billion) in September from 11.6 billion euros in August, the statistics office said. Adjusted for seasonal effects, the trade balance was 14.8 billion euros in September. Adjusted imports fell 1.2 percent after rising 5.8 percent in August, the report showed.
And also on Wednesday, the UK had reported a narrowing of the trade deficit for September.
Britain's...balance of trade in goods was £5.44bn in the red, down from a revised record of £5.9bn in August, according to the Office for National Statistics... The UK's surplus on trade in services rebounded to £1.6bn from £0.3bn the previous month... The improvement in the services position narrowed the balance of trade in goods and services from £5.6bn to £3.9bn in September. The total exports of goods rose two per cent to £18.1bn while total imports dropped by half a per cent to £23.5bn.
Yesterday saw France release trade and other important economic data, as reported by Bloomberg.
France's economy expanded...0.7 percent from the second quarter, when it rose 0.1 percent, the government said today in Paris...
The French inflation rate slid to 2 percent in October from 2.4 percent in September, Insee, the national statistics office, said today...
French factories, utilities and mines increased production by 0.2 percent from August, national statistics office Insee said in Paris today. The August increase was revised to a 1.2 percent gain from 0.8 percent...
France's trade deficit narrowed to 1.7 billion euros in September from 2.2 billion euros in August as exports rose 4.6 percent to a record 31.2 billion euros ($36.7 billion), the customs department said today. Imports rose 2.7 percent to 32.9 billion euros.
The economy will expand between 1.5 percent and 2 percent this year and about 2.5 percent in 2006, [Finance Minister Thierry] Breton said today, reiterating his targets.
If the trade data look a little lopsided, perhaps a recent Federal Reserve paper (via New Economist) goes some way towards explaining it.
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