The US Trade Balance refers to the difference between exports of goods and services out of the US, and imports to America. The trade balance is one of the biggest components of the US's Balance of Payment, which gives valuable insight and heavy pressure on the value of the dollar.

A positive Trade Balance (surplus) indicates that exports are greater than imports. When imports exceed exports, the US experiences a trade deficit. Because foreign goods are usually purchased using foreign currency, trade deficits usually reflect dollars leaking out of the country. Such currency outflows may lead to a natural depreciation of a dollar, unless countered by comparable capital inflows (US Net Foreign Security Purchases, or TICs data reports on such capital flows). At a bare minimum, deficits fundamentally weigh down the value of the currency.

There are a number of factors that work to diminish the market impact of US Trade Balance. The report is not very timely, coming some time after the reporting period. Developments in many of the figure's components are also typically well anticipated. Lastly, since the report reflects data for a specific reporting month, any significant changes in the Trade Balance should plausibly have already been felt during that month and not during the release of data. However, because of the overall significance of Trade Balance data in forecasting trends in the Forex Market, the release has historically been one of the more important reports out of the US .

The headline figure for trade balance is expressed in billion of dollars.

Relevance: Tends to move markets on release
Release schedule : 8:30 AM (EST); monthly
Source of report : Bureau of Economic Analysis, Department of Commerce (U.S.)
Web Address : http://www.bea.gov/
Address of release : http://www.bea.gov/bea/di/home/trade.htm
http://www.bea.gov/bea/international/bp_web/simple.cfm?anon=71&table_id=1&area_id=3 bottom > Memoranda > Balance on goods and services (line 73)
AKA : Net Exports