Jump in March Trade Deficit Means GDP Fell in First Quarter

The sharp jump in the March trade deficit reported this morning means that GDP in the first quarter will be revised into negative territory. The $51.4 billion trade deficit reported for March, was $15.5 billion increase from the $35.9 billion deficit reported in February. Some of this is undoubtedly noise in the data (the February number was surprisingly low), but some of the rise is likely due to the impact of the higher dollar which is making U.S. goods and services less competitive interna...