Metals sell off after Trump win while oil recoups some losses
Metals bore the brunt of global commodity price losses after a US election win by Donald Trump on Wednesday.
The U.S. Census Bureau recently released its data on U.S. trade in goods by selected countries and world region for 2015. We built three maps to provide a proportional visualization of the trade that occurs between the U.S. and other countries. Exports are represented in green, imports are represented in red, and the balance (exports – imports) is represented by red or green depending on whether the U.S. has exported more or less goods than it has imported. For instance, if a country’s imports exceeds its exports, the country will experience a trade deficit, which represents an outflow of domestic currency to foreign markets. Based on the data, the U.S. exported over $1.5 trillion and imported over $2.2 trillion in goods throughout 2015. This leaves leaves the U.S. with a negative balance of $735 billion!
Take a look at the top 5 countries with the largest balances (positive and negative):
Hong Kong: $30.5 billion
Netherlands: $24.0 billion
Belgium: $14.6 billion
Australia: $14.2 billion
Singapore: $10.4 billion
China: $365.7 billion
Germany: $74.2 billion
Japan: $68.6 billion
Mexico: $58.4 billion
Ireland: $30.4 billion
Take a look at the top 5 countries that the U.S. has exported goods to:
Canada: $280.3 billion
Mexico: $236.4 billion
China: $116.2 billion
Japan: $62.5 billion
United Kingdom: $56.4 billion
Together the top 5 countries make up about 50% of all U.S. exports.
Take a look at the top 5 countries that the U.S. has imported goods from:
China: $481.9 billion
Canada: $295.2 billion
Mexico: $294.7 billion
Japan: $131.1 billion
Germany: $124.1 billion
Together the top 5 countries make up about 59% of all U.S. imports.
Looking at the data by area shows that South/Central America, OPEC and Africa are the only regions with positive balances, whereas North America, Europe, and Pacific Rim areas show a negative balance. Interestingly, China, which as a negative balance of $365.7 billion represents ~80% of the negative balance attributed to the Pacific Rim countries and ~50% of the overall negative balance! To put this into perspective, the continent of Europe represents only ~23% of the overall negative balance for selected countries.
How can the U.S. close the gap between imports and exports?
