US July Advance Trade Gap Widens, Inventories Faster Than Expected

08:44 AM EDT, 08/27/2026 (MT Newswires) -- The US advance international trade in goods deficit widened to $118.81 billion in July from $101.41 billion in June, according to data released by the US Census Bureau. This was a wider gap than the $100.5 billion deficit expected in a survey compiled by Bloomberg. Exports fell by 2.9% in July while imports rose by 3.7%. In the same report, wholesale inventories rose by 1.3% in July after a 0.3% increase in June. Analysts polled by Bloomberg expected wholesale inventories to increase by only 0.2%. Retail inventories were up 0.7% in July following a 0.2% decrease in the previous month. This was a larger increase than the 0.2% gain expected by analysts. Excluding a 0.7% increase in motor vehicle inventories, retail inventories still increased by 0.7% in the month.