Today's economic news brings with it the potential for a better-than-previously-expected US economy in the next several months, with a possible positive impact on President Obama's re-election prospects.
The new pieces of economic data released today show that first-time filings for unemployment fell in the most recent reporting week, rather than rising as some analysts had expected. The decline was not great, but it was in the right direction.
In addition, the US trade deficit narrowed in June to its lowest level in eight months. The decline was due in large part to cheaper oil imports, but also to a lesser extent to an increase in US exports to a record high $185 billion. Exports of US goods even increased to Europe, despite the financial problems being experienced there.
These pieces of positive news follow last Friday's announcement of a much-higher-than-expected increase in new employment in July -- 163,000 new jobs -- up from just 60,000 new hirings in June. The economy is far from being out of the woods, however, with the national unemployment rate actually ticking up by one-tenth of a percentage point in July, to 8.2%.
However, these positive data suggested to many economists that the economy may be improving, rather than stagnating as many had feared.
In response to the improved export numbers, Joel Naroff, of Naroff Economic Advisors, said, "As long as we can keep selling more of our goods across the world, the economy can (grow) at a moderate pace."
If these bits of good economic news foresage further positive data in the next couple of months, the prospects for President Obama's re-election will be improved from the current outlook, which is for a very close race. Let's see what happens in the next several weeks.
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