Trade Deficit Widens on Record Energy Prices

- The Trade Deficit for April widened to -$60.9 billion versus a downwardly revised -$56.5 billion in March.

BOTTOM LINE: The US trade deficit widened in April as the surging cost of oil boosted imports to a record, overshadowing the biggest gain in exports in four years, Bloomberg said. Excluding petroleum, the trade deficit was little changed. After eliminating the influence of prices, which are the numbers used to compute GDP, the trade deficit shrank to $46.9 billion, the lowest since August 2003. This should help boost economic growth during the quarter. I still expect the trade deficit to continue trending lower over the intermediate-term.