Foreign trade looks very healthy

U.S. trade figures for July, released today, continue to reflect very healthy growth fundamentals. Exports are up fully 20% from a year ago, reflecting very strong global demand for U.S. products and services. Imports are strong in part because of rising oil prices, but importantly, they are not weakening otherwise, which suggests that basic demand remains healthy in the U.S. There is no sign of any global slowdown in these numbers, which runs very counter to the pervasive gloom infecting the U.S. markets (and global markets) these days.