U.S. Trade Deficit Hits Second-Highest Level Ever

Connecting the Dots monitors all major economic announcements in the United States and Canada, but MSCI also offers other economic and industrial metals industry-specific data products that provide much deeper analysis and insight. Visit MSCI’s website and click on Industry Data to learn more about our Metals Activity Report (MAR), Momentum Monitors, and Economic Opportunity and Risk Tracker.

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

• The U.S. trade deficit was $89.7 billion in January, up $7.7 billion from $82 billion in December. The increase reflected a rise in the goods deficit of $7.1 billion to $108.9 billion and a decrease in the services surplus. Overall, January exports were $224.4 billion, $3.9 billion less than in December. January imports were $314.1 billion, $3.8 billion more than December. Read more here.
• Canada posted a C$2.62 billion ($2.04 billion) trade surplus in January, beating analyst forecasts of C$1.60 billion. Exports fell 0.2 percent, however, with declines in 7 of 11 product sectors that were led by motor vehicles and parts and aircrafts. Those drops were offset by higher exports of energy products, which rose 8.7 percent. Imports were down 7.4 percent overall with that decline led by a 13.9 percent drop in imports of motor vehicles and parts. Read more here. Meanwhile, a survey by Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters found nine out of 10 companies in the sector are grappling with supply chain issues. More than half said the disruptions are having a major or severe effect on operations. Read more here.
• Job openings in the United States at the end of January were 11.3 million, the second highest level all time. Included in that number were 855,000 manufacturing jobs. The record was in December 2021 when there were 11.5 million. There are now more than 4.75 million more job openings than unemployed workers. Put another way, for every 100 job openings there are only 58 people who are unemployed and looking for work. In other employment news: 227,000 individuals filed for federal unemployment benefits for the first time during the week that ended March 5, an increase of 11,000 from the previous week’s level. The four-week moving average was 231,250, an increase of 500 from the previous week’s revised average.
• The National Federation of Independent Business’ Optimism Index in February fell to its lowest monthly point since January 2021. The 95.7 rating also was fourth-lowest mark in at least five years. More than one-quarter of small businesses (26 percent) said their “most important problem” was inflation. That number was its highest since the third quarter of 1981. While inflation was small business owners’ biggest worry, labor shortages and supply chain issues also remained a significant challenge. Read the report here.
• In other economic news: Real average hourly earnings for all employees decreased 0.8 percent from January 2022 to February 2022 and 2.6 percent from February 2021 to February 2022; and the U.S. consumer product index increased 0.8 percent between January 2022 and February 2022 and 7.9 percent from February 2021 to February 2022, the fastest increase since 1982.