Trade Date

The date on which the transaction occurs.

The trade date ranges from one to five days before the settlement date, depending on the type of transaction.

Factors

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 .

Trade Balance

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.