Economy

More stories

  • 125 Shares109 Views

    in Economy

    U.S. Trade Deficit Hit Record in 2024 as Imports Surged

    by

    A strong dollar helped drive an uptick in U.S. imports last year, while export growth remained modest.The U.S. trade deficit in goods hit a record $1.2 trillion last year, as American consumers snapped up imported products and a strong U.S. dollar weighed on export growth.Data released Wednesday morning by the Commerce Department showed that U.S. imports of goods and services grew 6.6 percent to a record $4.1 trillion, as Americans bought large amounts of auto parts, weight-loss drugs, computers and food from other countries.U.S. exports of goods and services to the world also hit a record, reaching $3.2 trillion in 2024.That was driven by record sales of U.S. services, like business and financial advising, as well as foreign spending on travel in the United States. But exports of goods taken on their own grew more sluggishly, as a strong U.S. dollar made it more expensive for other countries to buy American products, and the United States sold fewer cars, car parts and industrial supplies, like raw materials and machinery, to the world.Competition from automakers in China and strikes in the U.S. auto industry weighed on exports of vehicles, parts and engines, which fell $10.8 billion compared with the year before.Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said Chinese electric vehicle sales had taken off in 2024, in China and elsewhere, and were siphoning market share from other producers. Companies like General Motors have been under pressure in China, where more than four-fifths of the electric and plug-in hybrid cars sold are now Chinese brands.“The Chinese auto industry has really come on and is very competitive in the E.V. space,” Mr. Zandi said. “And that’s a real problem for U.S. manufacturers that are producing and exporting to the rest of the world.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • 100 Shares129 Views

    in Economy

    Wall Street quizzes US companies over tariff risks

    by

    $99 for your first yearFT newspaper delivered Monday-Saturday, plus FT Digital Edition delivered to your device Monday-Saturday.What’s included Weekday Print EditionFT WeekendFT Digital EditionGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionSpecial featuresExclusive FT analysis More

  • 138 Shares109 Views

    in Economy

    Private payrolls expanded by 183,000 in January, topping expectations, ADP says

    by

    ADP said companies created a net 183,000 jobs on the month, slightly more than the 176,000 in December.
    Pay for workers who stayed in their jobs grew at a 4.7% annual rate, or 0.1 percentage point more than in December.
    All of the job creation came from service providers, who added 190,000 positions while goods producers lost 6,000.

    Maplewood, Minnesota. Metro Transit hiring drivers with the possibility to make $30.00 an hour. (Photo by: Michael Siluk/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
    Ucg | Universal Images Group | Getty Images

    Private sector companies added more jobs than expected in January, furthering the case for a stable labor market that allows the Federal Reserve time as it contemplates its next policy move, ADP reported Wednesday.
    The payrolls processing firm said companies created a net 183,000 jobs on the month, slightly more than the 176,000 in December, a number that was revised sharply upward from the initial figure of 122,000. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for a gain of 150,000.

    Pay for workers who stayed in their jobs grew at a 4.7% annual rate, or 0.1 percentage point more than in December.
    Though the headline ADP number topped expectations, the internals showed an unbalanced picture.
    All of the job creation came from service providers, who added 190,000 positions while goods producers lost 6,000. (The numbers don’t add up to the 183,000 due to rounding.)
    “We had a strong start to 2025 but it masked a dichotomy in the labor market,” APD chief economist Nela Richardson said. “Consumer-facing industries drove hiring, while job growth was weaker in business services and production.”
    Trade, transportation and utilities topped sectors with 56,000 new jobs, with leisure and hospitality close behind at 54,000 and education and health services adding 20,000. However, manufacturing lost 13,000 positions.

    Job creation was spread fairly evenly across business size, with companies that employ workers leading with 92,000.
    Fed officials are watching the jobs picture closely as they consider whether to continue lowering interest rates. The Fed last year cut 1 percentage point off its key borrowing rate in an effort to support a labor market that had showed signs of slowing. Recently, policymakers have stressed the importance of staying patient as they watch the tariff battle in Washington as well as the impact from the rate reductions.
    The ADP report serves as a run-up to the more closely watched nonfarm payrolls report, due Friday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which unlike ADP includes government workers. The consensus view for the BLS report is a gain of 169,000 in payrolls in January, with the unemployment rate holding at 4.1%.
    The two reports sometimes differ significantly. However, ADP said it continues to expand its sample size for the pay measure portion, which is now at 14.8 million compared to nearly 10 million when it launched. More

  • 63 Shares179 Views

    in Economy

    The deceptively negotiable Donald Trump

    by

    $99 for your first yearFT newspaper delivered Monday-Saturday, plus FT Digital Edition delivered to your device Monday-Saturday.What’s included Weekday Print EditionFT WeekendFT Digital EditionGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionSpecial featuresExclusive FT analysis More

  • 150 Shares179 Views

    in Economy

    Trump Prepares to Take On the US Trade Deficit, a Familiar Nemesis

    by

    The trade deficit has long drawn the president’s ire. Now, he’s preparing to take it on again.To President Trump, one economic number represents everything that is wrong with the global economy: America’s trade deficit.That deficit is the total value of what the United States imports from other nations, minus its exports to other countries. The fact that America runs a trade deficit reflects how the nation’s appetite for foreign goods now far outpaces what U.S. factories and farms send abroad.Official data set for release on Wednesday morning is expected to show that the U.S. trade deficit widened to nearly $1.2 trillion in 2024. For Mr. Trump, the fact that the United States imports more goods than it exports is a sign of economic weakness and evidence that the world is taking advantage of America. While the country’s trade deficit has been widening for years, that gap could end up being a key reason Mr. Trump decides to impose tariffs on Europe, China, Canada, Mexico and other governments.Mr. Trump rolled out a dramatic series of trade actions against Canada, Mexico and China in recent days, signing executive orders to put tariffs on all three nations in what he said was an effort to stem the flow of drugs and migrants to the United States.But he also cited the trade deficit as he talked about tariffs writ large, making clear that the gap between what America sells and what it buys remains top of mind for Mr. Trump.

    .dw-chart-subhed {
    line-height: 1;
    margin-bottom: 6px;
    font-family: nyt-franklin;
    color: #121212;
    font-size: 15px;
    font-weight: 700;
    }

    America’s Trade Deficits and Surpluses With Other Countries
    Note: Data is adjusted for inflation and shows 2023 trade in goods, the latest available full year of data.Source: Census BureauBy The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More