Advance Indicators: Wholesale and retail inventories up, trade deficit up

Mike “Mish” Shedlock's Sitka Pacific Capital Management,Llc

The trade deficit in goods increased slightly as retail and wholesale inventories rose.

Advance Indicators

The U.S. Census Bureau announced the following international trade, wholesale inventories, and retail inventories advance statistics for October 2020:

Advance International Trade in Goods: The international trade deficit was $80.3 billion in October, up $0.9 billion from $79.4 billion in September. Exports of goods for October were $126.0 billion, $3.4 billion more than September exports. Imports of goods for October were $206.3 billion, $4.4 billion more than September imports.
Advance Wholesale Inventories:Wholesale inventories for October, adjusted for seasonal variations but not for price changes, were estimated at an end-of-month level of $646.2 billion, up 0.9 percent from September 2020, and were down 2.7 percent from October 2019. The August 2020 to September 2020 percentage change was revised from up 0.4 percent to up 0.7 percent.
Advance Retail Inventories: Retail inventories for October, adjusted for seasonal variations but not for price changes, were estimated at an end of-month level of $612.2 billion, up 0.8 percent from September 2020, and were down 8.5 percent from October 2019. The August 2020 to September 2020 percentage change was unrevised from the preliminary estimate of up 1.7 percent.

Point #1, a deficit of $80.3 billion is the trade deficit in goods only.

The trade actual deficit will be lower as the US maintains a surplus in services.

Fred, the St. Louis data repository, added data downloads for these series today but they are populated with only one data point so I am unable to produce better charts.

Author

Mike “Mish” Shedlock's

Sitka Pacific Capital Management,Llc

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