The KUIK Morning Market Report for Tuesday, April 4:
Markets are flat.
Index
Direction
Change
Units
Time
Dow
Down
(8)
points
20,641
7:06 AM
S&P500
Down
-0.2%
percent
2,353
Nasdaq Composite
Down
-0.1%
percent
5,887
30 Year Treasury
Down
(1)
Basis Points
2.98
Annual Yield
The U.S. trade deficit fell almost 10% in February, aided by an increase in exports to a 26-month high and a drop in imports of autos and cell phones. The deficit fell to $43.6 billion in February. wiping out the big increase in January that raised the nation’s trade gap to a five-year high of $48.2 billion. Economists expected a seasonally adjusted $44.5 billion. Exports rose 0.2% to $192.9 billion, the most since December 2014. Imports fell 1.8% in February to $236.4 billion. Despite the drop, the trade deficit is running 3.2% higher through the first two months of 2017 compared to the same period in 2016.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service said it would direct more inspectors in the H-1B program to the outsourcing companies, many which are based in India. They have drawn scrutiny because their U.S. subsidiaries sometimes import employees to do work once performed by Americans. Last year, the government received more than 236,000 applications for the 85,000 visas, of which 20,000 are reserved for people with advanced degrees.
Serving the West Side first, I am Bill Roller of BR Capital for 1360 KUIK.
