Catenaa, Tuesday, July 28, 2026- The US merchandise-trade deficit narrowed in June as a broad-based decline in imports, including a rare pullback in capital goods, outpaced a slide in exports.
The goods trade gap contracted 4.2% to $101.5 billion last month, the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau said on Tuesday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the goods deficit at $100.0 billion.
Goods imports decreased $8.2 billion to $306.2 billion, but remained elevated amid an artificial intelligence spending boom.
The AI build-out is heavily dependent on imports. Exports of goods fell $3.8 billion to $204.7 billion.
The government is scheduled to publish its advance estimate of second-quarter gross domestic product growth on Thursday.
The trade deficit has fluctuated in recent months as the Iran war helped boost global demand for US petroleum products and American firms ramped up imports to supply the artificial intelligence buildout.
Companies have also been building stockpiles of goods and materials as supply-chain delays have become more widespread and the threat of new tariffs has loomed, fueling concerns about additional price hikes.
Tuesday’s figures showed outbound shipments of industrial supplies, where crude oil and petroleum products are counted, fell 4.4% in June. The category also includes nonmonetary gold, which has helped fuel swings over the past year. Exports of the volatile consumer goods category and automotive vehicles rebounded.
Meanwhile, imports of capital goods, a category which includes computers and accessories, semiconductors and telecommunications equipment, fell for the first time since September, though they remained 37.4% higher than a year earlier.
Imports of consumer goods also fell.
The resumption of hostilities between the US and Iran this month has raised fresh concerns about shipping disruptions. President Donald Trump also announced new tariffs earlier this month to replace duties struck down by the US Supreme Court in February.
Figures on retail inventories, released alongside the goods trade data, showed they were little changed in June following three months of outsize increases.
Wholesalers, however, continued to add to inventories: they rose 0.3% from the prior month and 4.4% from a year earlier, which marked the strongest annual increase since 2023.
The trade and inventories data will help inform the government’s first estimate of second-quarter gross domestic product, which will be published Thursday.
Ahead of Tuesday’s release, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s GDPNow model saw net exports reducing GDP growth by 1.35 percentage points.
More complete June trade figures that include the balance on the services account and inflation-adjusted numbers on merchandise trade are due August 4.
Separate data published earlier this month by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed US import prices rose 0.3% in June, while export prices fell 0.6%
