The Real Economy Blog

Economic News from RSM

Home > Coronavirus > CHART OF THE DAY: An impending end to the trade downdraft

CHART OF THE DAY: An impending end to the trade downdraft

by

Activity at U.S. seaports indicates recovering domestic and international economies at the end of last year. Though tapering off a bit in December, loaded import containers processed grew by an average of 20% in the fourth quarter. And export activity — which is still worrisome in terms of global economic demand — was down less than 2% over the last three months of the year.

Though not perfectly correlated, the improving trends in seaport activity suggest the same for the U.S. external sector and the economy as a whole.

Friday’s release of export and import data by the U.S. Census is likely to confirm the resurgence of U.S. demand for foreign goods, which is a good sign for the domestic economy. But there’s still a long way to go for U.S. exporters, who are hopeful that international relationships will be quickly patched up and that vaccinations will end the pandemic’s impact on foreign demand.

For more information on how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting midsize businesses, please visit the RSM Coronavirus Resource Center.

Related posts

  • CHART OF THE DAY: The vanishing worker

    The domestic labor market is approaching a potential inflection point for millions of workers. The number of people unemployed for more than 26 weeks is rising, and they have about a 10% probability of finding work at wages…

  • CHART OF THE DAY: The race to find a coronavirus vaccine

    Scientists have been working at a blistering pace to shorten the vaccine development cycle from years to months in order to get a COVID-19 vaccine to market. With more than 190 such vaccines in development, there are several…

  • Seaports grow quiet amid trade tensions and the coronavirus outbreak

    While commercial activity as measured by the comings and goings of shipping containers at the Los Angeles/Long Beach seaport has been dropping since the onset of the U.S. trade war, it is now threatened by a health crisis…

About Joseph Brusuelas

@JoeBrusuelas

Joe Brusuelas, “chief economist to the middle market,” is the preeminent voice championing issues and policies facing midsize companies in the United States and around the world. An award-winning economist, Brusuelas has more than 20 years’ experience analyzing U.S. monetary policy, labor markets, fiscal policy, international finance, economic indicators and the condition of the U.S. consumer.

A member of the Wall Street Journal’s forecasting panel and the UCLA Anderson School of Management's Board of Directors, Brusuelas regularly briefs members of Congress and other senior officials regarding the impacts of federal policy on the middle market and the factors by which middle market executives make business decisions. He also frequently offers his insights on the U.S., Canadian and global economies in the financial media. In 2020, he was named one of the 100 most influential economists by Richtopia. In December 2023, Brusuelas and the economics team were recognized on Bloomberg's list of Best Bond Forecasters after correctly predicting where the benchmark Treasury would end the year.

Before joining RSM in 2014, Brusuelas spent four years as a senior economist at Bloomberg L.P. and the Bloomberg Briefs newsletter group, where he co-founded the award-winning Bloomberg Economic Brief. Earlier in his career, he was a director at Moody's Analytics covering the U.S. and global economies for the Dismal Scientist website. He also served as chief economist at Merk Investments L.L.C. and chief U.S. economist at IDEAglobal.

The Real Economy Blog