US: Trade balance posted -$46.5bn figure for May - Nomura

The US trade balance came in at -$46.5bn for May, essentially in line with expectations (Consensus and Nomura:-$46.3bn), with a 0.4% m-o-m increase in exports and imports falling 0.1%, notes the research team at Nomura.

Key Quotes

“A rebound in exports appears consistent with elevated trade activity in global economies, but goods imports remained subdued with declines in autos and other consumer goods. Yet, goods imports in April were revised up slightly. Given that the advance goods trade data had been released a week earlier, there were no major surprises in today's data.”

“GDP tracking update: We lowered our Q2 GDP tracking estimate by 0.1pp to 2.4% q-oq saar after incorporating trade data. A slight upward revision to goods imports in April reduced our net exports estimate in Q2. On the other hand, net imports of capital goods came in stronger than we expected, suggesting more domestic business investment on equipment. On balance, the detailed components of the May trade report were slightly negative to Q2 GDP tracking.”