Markets Take Report In Stride: Markets React Calmly To Trade Report
NEW YORK, Sept. 11ÛÓ-Financial markets, braced for the worse, responded calmly today to the largest monthly trade deficit in U.S. history.</br></br>The Commerce Department said the merchandise trade deficit ballooned to a record $16.5 billion in July, surpassing the apparent record of $15.7 billion set just one month earlier.</br></br>Economists expressed disappointment with the report, but investors took it in stride because they had been knocking down the prices of stocks, bonds and the dollar for weeks in anticipation of a big deficit.</br></br>"The markets at the close of the day are all up, which is a little strange considering how lousy the report was,Û said Robert Giordano, a partner and codirector of economic research at Goldman, Sachs & Co.</br></br>The dollar rebounded after a brief sell-off. Stocks and bonds, which tend to rise on a stronger dollar, followed suit.