August’s $6.3B trade deficit was the seventh straight, tracking below estimates of $5.5B and widening versus July’s $3.8B…

… largely due to gold, which carried imports to a 0.9% M/M gain…

… and contributed to a 3% decline in exports alongside continued weakness in industrial machinery, vehicles, and forestry products.

The latter has been topical of late, with additional softwood lumber tariffs imposed by the U.S. driving production cuts and decimating exports (down ~25%)…

… which contributed to the first drop in U.S. export activity in four months.

International exports weren’t there to pick up the slack, falling 2% - the third straight decline led by weakness in the EU and China.