U.S. And Canadian Trade Gaps Widened In March
- The U.S. trade deficit was $74.4 billion in March, up $3.9 billion from $70.5 billion in February. March exports were $200 billion, $12.4 billion more than February exports. March imports were $274.5 billion, $16.4 billion more than the month before. The March increase in the overall deficit reflected an increase in the goods deficit of $3.6 billion to $91.6 billion and a decrease in the services surplus of $0.3 billion to $17.1 billion. Year-to-date, the overall deficit increased $83.2 billion, or 64.2 percent, from the same period in 2020.
- According to Statistics Canada, Canada posted a merchandise trade deficit of $1.1 billion in March as imports climbed to their highest level since May 2019. The March trade deficit followed two consecutive monthly trade surpluses, including $1.4 billion in February and nearly $1.3 billion in January. Read more here.
- The U.S. economy created approximately 266,000 jobs last month, about one-quarter of the number that economists had expected. Employment in the manufacturing industry declined by 18,000 jobs. The unemployment rate also increased slightly from six percent to 6.1 percent. In related news: initial applications for jobless benefits came in 498,000 in the week that ended May 1, a drop of 92,000 from the previous week’s total of 590,000. Read more here.
- Meanwhile, according to CTV News, Canada lost 207,000 jobs in April as a spike in COVID-19 cases led to renewed public health restrictions and concerns about longer-term economic consequences of the pandemic. The unemployment rate rose to 8.1 percent from 7.5 percent, but the number would have been 10.5 percent if it included Canadians who wanted to work but did not search for a job.
- New orders for U.S. manufactured goods in March increased 1.1 percent to $512.9 billion while shipments rose 2.1 percent to $513.6 billion. Unfilled orders increased 0.4 percent to nearly $1.1 trillion and the unfilled orders-to-shipments ratio was 6.21, down from 6.30 in February. Inventories were up 0.7 percent to $707.7 billion while the inventories-to-shipments ratio was 1.38, down from 1.4 in February. Read the full report here.
- The Institute for Supply Management’s index for manufacturing activity in the United States dropped to 60.7 in April from 64.7 in March while the IHS Markit Canada Manufacturing purchasing managers’ index fell to 57.2 in April 2021 from a record high of 58.5 in March.
- In other news: U.S. construction spending increased 0.2 percent between February 2021 and March 2021 and 5.3 percent between March 2020 and March 2021; U.S. nonfarm business sector labor productivity increased 5.4 percent in the first quarter of 2021; and compensation costs for U.S. civilian workers rose 0.9 percent in the first quarter.