This week we learned that the trade deficit widened to $49.9 billion in June from a revised $42.0 billion in May. The wider deficit came as a surprise to economists, who had expected the deficit to narrow modestly to $42.2 billion from the $42.3 billion originally reported for the previous month.
Also this week first-time claims for unemployment benefits saw a modest increase while initial jobless claims rose to 484,000 from the previous week’s revised figured of 482,000. Economists had been expecting jobless claims to fall to 465,000 from the 479,000 originally reported for the previous week.
This week we see only one sector up – but on that chart two times.
The US dollar was the big gainer this week and gold was up also.
