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Your take on the July U.S. trade data may very well hinge on whether you tend to see a half-glass of orange juice as a glass half-empty or half-full.

The downside: the U.S. trade deficit increased 5.7% in July to $62.2 billion, the U.S. Commerce Department announced Thursday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had expected a $58.0 billion trade deficit for July.

The upside: the non-petroleum trade deficit in goods declined 9.8% to $29.6 billion -- its lowest level in six years, the Commerce Department said.

Almost all of July's trade deficit increase was due to oil. So, does the July trade statistic constitute a modest victory, or something less?

"It means the nation's trade deficit picture is improving, just as long as we don't use any oil," economist Peter Dawson said. "Kidding aside, the non-oil component of the trade deficit continues to improve, and I'm emphasizing that dimension. The oil import component should decrease provided oil prices continue to moderate and Americans continue to cutback gasoline use, so the trend line at least through Q4 is a good one for the trade deficit."

Overall in July, imports rose 3.9% to $230.3 billion, and exports increased 3.3% to $168.1 billion. Strong performance areas for exports included airplanes, machinery, auto parts, computers and industrial materials.

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Oil pushes July U.S. trade deficit higher, but exports shine originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 11 Sep 2008 11:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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