EmailThe U.S. trade deficit widened from $43.3 bln in October to $47.8 bln in November. The Briefing.com consensus expected the deficit to increase to $44.0B.
The goods deficit increased by $4.6 bln to $63.2 bln and the services surplus increased by $0.1 bln to $15.4 bln.
Exports in November fell $1.5 bln, from $179.4 bln in October to $177.8 bln in November.
Like October, the bulk of the decline in exports can be blamed on a lack of demand for nonmonetary gold. Nonmonetary gold exports in October fell by $1.2 bln. At the time, we blamed the drop in gold exports to a decline in prices. As prices rebounded in November, we anticipated that gold exports would recover. That did not happen. Nonmonetary gold exports declined by $0.9 bln in November. This suggests that the recent volatility in gold exports is not due to prices but due to demand.
Imports increased from $222.6 bln in October to $225.6 bln in November, a gain of $2.9 bln.
The increase in imports came almost entirely from the petroleum sector. Petroleum imports increased to $37.9 bln in November from $34.7 bln in October. Non-petroleum imports increased by only $0.2 bln.
