by Calculated Risk on 5/04/2015 08:06:00 PM

Note: West Coast port traffic increased sharply in March following the resolution of the labor issue in February. The workers were catching up with all the ships anchored in the harbor (now gone).

This graph is monthly for inbound and outbound traffic at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in TEUs (TEUs: 20-foot equivalent units or 20-foot-long cargo container).



Both imports and exports rebounded in March, but imports rebounded more - and were up 36% year-over-year - whereas exports were down 20% year-over-year.

This suggests more imports from Asia in March, and also suggests the trade deficit was significantly higher in March than in February.

Tuesday:
• At 8:30 AM ET, Trade Balance report for March from the Census Bureau. The consensus is for the U.S. trade deficit to be at $42.0 billion in March from $35.4 billion in February.

• At 10:00 AM, the ISM non-Manufacturing Index for April. The consensus is for index to decrease to 56.2 from 56.5 in March.