US Trade Deficit Plunges Most In 10 Years - Is Trump Winning?
Confirming the advance trade balance, it could be argued - by those of a particular persuasion - that Trump's trade policies are working as the US trade deficit has collapsed to its lowest since September 2016.
The US trade balance for May printed a smaller deficit than expected at $43.1 bn (vs $43.6bn exp) and well down from the revised $46.1bn in April.
This is the lowest trade deficit since October 2016 and biggest 3-month reduction in the deficit in 10 years.
Exports of goods and services climbed to a record high, outpacing a pickup in imports.
Under the hood, the biggest driver of the improvement was US soybean exports rose 90% MoM in May.
Overall exports increased 1.9 percent to $215.3 billion as soybean shipments overseas almost doubled to $4.1 billion. Exports of civilian aircraft, a category that tends to be volatile, rose $1.9 billion in May.
Imports rose 0.4 percent to $258.4 billion, boosted by a record value of capital goods shipments from overseas.
However, the report also showed the trade gap with China, the world's second-biggest economy, widened to $32 billion in May from $30.8 billion.
This is the biggest trade gap with China for a May since records began.
Finally, ex-Petroleum, this is the smallest trade deficit since March 2017...
We would expect to see GDP models updated positively shortly as improvement in the trade gap may be a positive for second-quarter growth.
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It is obvious soybeans doubled to beat the tariffs.