U.S. Trade Deficit Gets Wider, But Canada’s Improves

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

• The U.S. goods and services trade deficit rose $65 billion in July, up $1.3 billion from $63.7 billion in June. Exports did rise by 1.6 percent, but imports grew by a larger amount: 1.7 percent. The worsening of the deficit reflected an increase in the goods deficit of $2 billion to $90 billion and an increase in the services surplus of $0.7 billion to $25.0 billion. Year-to-date, the goods and services deficit is down $128.3 billion, or 21.4 percent, from the same period in 2022.
• In July, Canada’s merchandise imports fell 5.4 percent while exports were up 0.7 percent. As a result, the country’s merchandise trade deficit narrowed from C$4.9 billion in June to C$987 million in July. Imports of metal and non-metallic mineral products were down 25.3 percent due primarily to a drop in imports of unwrought gold, silver, and platinum group metals, and their alloys. Read the full report here.
• New orders for U.S. manufactured goods fell 2.1 percent from June to July. Shipments rose 0.5 percent while unfilled orders increased 0.5 percent. The unfilled orders-to-shipments ratio was 6.80, up from 6.74 in June. Inventories rose 0.1 percent and the inventories-to-shipments ratio was 1.48, unchanged from June.
• The Canadian economy added 40,000 jobs in August while the country’s unemployment rate held steady at 5.5 percent. Employment rose in professional, scientific, and technical services (+52,000) and construction (+34,000), but declined in educational services (-44,000) and manufacturing (-30,000).
• During the week that ended Sept. 2, 216,000 individuals received U.S. federal unemployment benefits for the first time, a decrease of 13,000 from the previous week. The four-week moving average of first-time claims also fell, as did the number of people who continued to receive benefits. That tally fell to 1.679 million during the week that ended Aug. 26, down from 1.719 million the week before. The four-week moving average of people who continued to receive jobless benefits also dropped.
• In other economic news: The total monthly value of building permits in Canada declined 1.5 percent in July while new apartment construction  in the United States is on track to break a 50-year high, with nearly 460,000 rental units expected to be built across the country this year.