US international trade balance for August $-70.4 billion vs -$70.6B est/last mo – $78.9B

• Prior month $-78.8 billion revised to $-78.9 billion
• trade balance $-70.4 billion versus $-70.6 billion estimate.
• good trade balance -$94.22 pain dollars versus $-102.8 billion last month
• services surplus $24.4 billion versus $24.3 billion last month

Details:

• exports +2% versus July’s +0.5%
• imports -0.9% versus July +2.1%
• exports $271.76 billion versus $266.48 billion last month
• imports $342.1 billion versus $345.4 billion last month
• capital goods imports $83.13 billion versus $83.46 billion last month
• China trade deficit $-27.88 billion versus $-30.12 billion last month
• Year-to-date, the goods and services deficit increased $47.1 billion, or 8.9 percent, from the same period in 2023. Exports increased $79.0 billion or 3.9 percent. Imports increased $126.1 billion or 4.9 percent.

Three-month averages of the deficit shows:

The average goods and services deficit decreased $1.6 billion to $74.1 billion for the three months ending in August.

• Average exports increased $3.7 billion to $267.8 billion in August.
• Average imports increased $2.0 billion to $342.0 billion in August.

Year-over-year, the average goods and services deficit increased $11.1 billion from the three months ending in August 2023.

• Average exports increased $13.3 billion from August 2023.
• Average imports increased $24.4 billion from August 2023.

The take away is that last month’s goods imports were much higher than expected as a result of the expected strike at the ports.That increased the trade deficit. This month, there wasn’t that spike. As a result, the numbers were down sharply for goods trade deficit.

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This article was written by Greg Michalowski at www.forexlive.com.