$88.6 BILLION TRADE GAP IN JULY, UP 24.4% IN ONE MONTH

🔴 The US trade deficit hit $88.6 billion in July, a 24.4% jump in a single month.

finance.biggo.com reports the Commerce Department released the figure on September 3. It was the first time the gap widened in two months, and it widened from both ends at once.

Exports fell 2.1% to $310.7 billion.

Imports rose 2.8% to $399.3 billion.

That combination matters because net exports feed straight into GDP. A wider gap subtracts from growth.

📉 The second number is quieter and arguably worse. July construction spending fell 0.5% month over month to an annualized $2.158 trillion, the lowest level since October 2023. Markets had expected a flat reading. Year over year, spending is down 3.8%.

The housing side did the damage. Residential construction dropped 1.3%, with single-family home building down 3.2%. Multifamily edged up just 0.2%. Per the report, elevated mortgage rates are the pressure point, cooling housing and feeding through to the wider economy.

Elsewhere: private nonresidential construction rose 0.4%, power plant work up 0.5%, factory construction down 0.8%. Public spending fell 0.2%, with federal construction down 3.5%.

The counterargument in the piece: rising imports suggest domestic consumption and business investment are still holding up, and some analysts say this is not recession data.

Both readings land on the Fed's desk as inputs for the rate path.

Are rising imports a sign American demand is still strong, or just a bigger hole in growth?

#trade #economy #housing #fed #causeanuproar