U.S. Trade Deficit Unexpectedly Narrowed in April

Cargo containers sit idle at the Port of Los Angeles as a back-log of over 30 container ships sit anchored outside the Port in Los Angeles, California, February 18, 2015. (Photo: Reuters)

The U.S. trade deficit unexpectedly narrowed to$68.2 billion in April, a decrease of $0.4 billion from $68.6 billion in March. The politically-sensitive trade deficit was expected to widen to a consensus $71.0 billion.

But a $0.7 billion decline in exports to $139.6 billion was outweighed by a larger $1.1 billion decline in imports to$207.8 billion.

Advance Wholesale Inventories

Wholesale inventories for April, adjusted for seasonal variations but not for price changes, were estimated at an end-of-month level of $629.4 billion, virtually unchanged (±0.2%) from March 2018, and were up 5.6% (±3.9%) from April 2017. The February 2018 to March 2018 percentage change was revised from up 0.4% (±0.2%) to up 0.2% (±0.2%)*.

Advance Retail Inventories

Retail inventories for April, adjusted for seasonal variations but not for price changes, were estimated at an end-of-month level of $633.5 billion, up 0.6% (±0.2%) from March 2018, and were up 2.5% (±1.6%) from April 2017. The February 2018 to March 2018 percentage change was revised from down 0.4% (±0.2%) to down 0.7% (±0.2%).