U.S. Trade Deficit\nReaches New Record \u2013 <\/strong>American businesses and consumers imported goods at a\nrecord pace in August, buying $287 billion worth of foreign items from toys, to\nclothes, to pharmaceutical products. The Commerce Department also reported that\nthe difference between imports and exports expanded to $73.3 billion, also\nsetting a new record. Trade deficits are often framed as negative for the\neconomy since at a basic level the U.S. is buying more goods and services than\nit\u2019s selling. But the real metric that matters is total trade, <\/em>as it is a better indicator for the overall level of\neconomic activity. The good news here is that even as imports climbed to record\nlevels, exports also rose \u2013 a good sign for the global economy. Trade relations\nwith China \u2013 which took center stage this week as the Biden administration\nnegotiates a path forward \u2013 showed weaker data. The U.S. trade deficit with the\nworld\u2019s second-largest economy expanded to $31.7 billion in August, a by-product\nof rising imports but falling exports.1<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n __________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is There an Economic Rebound Around the Corner\u2026or is This Time Different?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Investors are questioning another economic rebound. And even\nthough history shows that markets have recovered from volatility, it\u2019s natural\nto think, \u201cmaybe this time it\u2019s different.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Feeling uncertain about what\u2019s to come is normal, but don\u2019t\ngive in to fear and panic! As difficult as it is to remain calm in uncertain\ntimes, focus your actions right now to better plan your financial future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s why we have put together a free investing playbook\nwith insights and guidance to help you seek success when investing through\nthese unprecedented times. If you have $500,000 or more to invest, get our free\ninvesting playbook today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Download – <\/a>The Black Swan Investing Playbook<\/a>2<\/a><\/sup><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n __________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n OPEC Slowly Raises\nProduction, Oil Prices Rise \u2013 <\/strong>Surging demand has featured prominently in\n2021, as U.S. households picked up travel and vacation trips. This return of\ndemand has not been met with the surging supply of oil \u2013 in the U.S., oil\ndrilling and output have moved higher, but they are far from pre-pandemic\nlevels. According to oil-field-services firm Baker Hughes, the last time crude\noil prices were at these levels, there were over 1,000 additional rigs drilling\nfor oil. OPEC stirred markets additionally this week by announcing they would\nincrease production, but not nearly at levels needed to meet current demand.\nOPEC plans to produce more barrels incrementally, rather than in large\nquantities immediately \u2013 they plan to raise collective output by 400,000\nbarrels a day in monthly installments. As you can see in the chart below, crude\noil prices continue responding to rising demand and too-low supply, climbing to\n$75 a barrel and showing few signs of retreat.3<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n Would a Higher\nUnemployment Rate Actually Be a Good Thing? <\/strong>The unemployment rate is\nnotoriously calculated in a wonky format \u2013 it only accounts for Americans actively seeking work <\/em>but unable to find\nit. If some Americans are unemployed but also not looking for work, they are\nnot counted towards the unemployment rate. That\u2019s why seeing a slight increase\nin the unemployment rate would not necessarily be a bad thing, assuming that\nthe uptick was due to more people coming off the sidelines in search of a job. According\nto the Labor Department, there are millions of Americans who stopped working\nand have not actively looked for work since early 2020, when the pandemic\nstifled economic activity. This dynamic is measured by the labor-force\nparticipation rate, which measures the number of adults seeking work. In\nJanuary 2020, the labor-force participation rate was 63.4%, but it has not\ncrossed above 62% in some time. Economists will be watching this metric\nespecially closely this fall, as federally expanded unemployment benefits have\nended and most schools have reopened.5<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n Managing Your\nRetirement Assets – <\/strong>It\u2019s important for investors, especially those nearing\nretirement, to take actions right now that have the greatest potential to\ndefine their financial future. When the market is experiencing high volatility,\nremember not to exit out of fear!<\/p>\n\n\n\n To help you stay grounded and understand how the market has\nrecovered historically, we have put together a free investing playbook6<\/sup>\nwith insights and guidance to help you seek success when investing through these\nunprecedented times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have $500,000 or more to invest, get our free\ninvesting playbook today. You\u2019ll learn about seven time-tested guidelines to\nhelp you seek investing success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" U.S. imports hit record but exports also rise, oil production not meeting surging demand, higher unemployment rate could be a good thing <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[71,73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-private-client-group","category-steady-investors-week"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9899"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10293,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9899\/revisions\/10293"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/4_pic1-2-1024x395.png\")