U.S., Canadian Trade Deficits Widened In November

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Meanwhile, here are the major economic headlines from the last week:

• The U.S. goods and services trade deficit was $56.8 billion in November 2025, up $27.6 billion from the month before. November exports totaled $292.1 billion, $10.9 billion less than October exports. November imports were $348.9 billion, $16.8 billion more than October imports. The November increase in the overall deficit reflected an increase in the goods deficit of $27.9 billion and an increase in the services surplus of $300 million. Year-to-date, the goods and services deficit was up $32.9 billion, or 4.1 percent, from the same period in 2024. Exports increased 6.3 percent. Imports rose 5.8 percent.
• In November, Canada’s merchandise exports declined 2.8 percent, while imports fell slightly (0.1 percent). As a result, the country’s merchandise trade deficit with the world widened from $395 million in October to $2.2 billion in November. Exports of metal and non-metallic mineral products posted the largest decline in November. Excluding exports of this product section, total exports increased 2.5 percent. Read more at this link.
• Real gross domestic product in Canada was essentially unchanged in November, following a 0.3 percent decline in October. Goods-producing industries contracted 0.3 percent in November, down for the third time in four months, primarily due to declines in the manufacturing and agriculture sectors. Services-producing industries edged up 0.1 percent, meanwhile.
• New orders for U.S. factory goods rose 2.7 percent from October 2025 to November 2025. Shipments decreased 0.1 percent and unfilled orders jumped 1.4 percent while the unfilled orders-to-shipments ratio was 7.04, up from 6.93 in October. Inventories increased 0.1 percent from October to November and the inventories-to-shipments ratio was 1.56, a number that was unchanged from October.
• U.S. wholesale sales increased 1.3 percent from October 2025 to November 2025 and 5.2 percent from November 2024 to November 2025. Durable goods sales increased 1.2 percent and nondurable goods sales rose 1.5 percent while inventories were up 0.2 percent month-over-month and 1.8 percent year-over-year. The inventories-to-sales ratio decreased to 1.28 from 1.30 in October.
• Regionals U.S. manufacturing readings released in late January were mixed. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Texas factory activity expanded solidly in January after contracting in December. The bank’s production index jumped to +11.2 from -3.0 while other measures of manufacturing activity also rebounded. The new orders index increased 18 points to +11.8, and the capacity utilization index moved up 12 points to +7.1. The shipments index increased to +12.0 from -10.5. The industry was not quite as hot in the central Atlantic region. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, the composite manufacturing index inched up to -6 in January from -7 in December and two of its three component indexes increased. Shipments increased to -5 from -11 and new orders increased slightly to -6 from -8, but employment decreased to -6 from -1.
• During the week that ended Jan. 24, 209,000 Americans filed for federal unemployment benefits for the first time, a 1,000 decrease from the previous week’s level. The four-week moving average of first-time claims was 206,250, an increase of 2,250 from the previous week. The number of people who continued to receive jobless benefits rose to 1.827 million for the week that ended Jan. 17, 2026. That number was down by 28,000 from the week before and is at its lowest level since September 2024. Additionally, the four-week moving average of continuing claims dropped to 1,867,500, a decrease of 7,250 from the week before.
• In other economic news: the U.S. producer price index increased 0.5 percent between November 2025 and December 2026 and three percent between December 2024 and December 2025 while the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index fell by 9.7 points in January to 84.5 from 94.2 in December as U.S. consumers showed growing pessimism about both the present situation and the future.