Fuel For The Protectionist Fire: US Trade Deficit Surges, Ex-Petroleum At All Time High

Coming at a time of heightened trade tensions and fears of an imminent trade war, for once every trader was looking at this morning's international trade report to see if it will pour more fuel on the trade war fire. It did, because according to the BEA, in January the US trade deficit surged 5% to $56.6 BN from $53.9BN in December, worse than the $55.0BN expected, and the biggest deficit going back to 2008.

In January, imports were little changed in Jan. at $257.51b from $257.51b in Dec, while exports fell 1.3% in Jan. to $200.91b from $203.61b in December.

The report came just hours after Trump once again slammed the US trade deficit, tweeting that "From Bush 1 to present, our Country has lost more than 55,000 factories, 6,000,000 manufacturing jobs and accumulated Trade Deficits of more than 12 Trillion Dollars. Last year we had a Trade Deficit of almost 800 Billion Dollars. Bad Policies & Leadership. Must WIN again!"

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from Salisbury News http://ift.tt/2FJcXYU