U.S. trade deficit widens in September

The U.S. trade deficit broadened in September to USD 43.5 billion from the earlier USD 42.8 billion deficit. This was widely consistent with expectations. Both import and export growth rose in September, compared to the weakness seen in July and August, but widening in the deficit came as imports grew slightly faster than exports (1.1 percent).

Within exports, the goods sector mainly drove the rise, growing 1.4 percent, while services rebounded at a more moderate pace of 0.4 percent. Goods imports also rose strongly by 1.2 percent amidst widely based strength and in particular in the capital goods and industrial supplies sectors. The real goods trade deficit was widely stable at USD 62.2 billion as a decline in the petroleum deficit was countered by an increase in trade ex. petroleum.

“The modest upward revision to the August trade deficit implies a slightly lower net exports number for Q3 than what was reported in the advance estimate last week. In all, the report left our Q3 GDP tracking estimate unchanged at 3.1 percent”, stated Barclays in a research report.

At 16:00 GMT the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of US Dollar was neutral at 20.0353. For more details on FxWirePro's Currency Strength Index, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex

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