India, March 6 -- Reflecting a spike by the value of imports, the Commerce Department released a report on Thursday showing the U.S. trade deficit widened by more than expected in the month of January.
The Commerce Department said the trade deficit surged to a record high of $131.4 billion in January from a revised $98.1 billion in December.
Economists had expected the trade deficit to jump to $123.0 billion from the $98.4 billion originally reported for the previous month.
"The significantly wider trade deficit wasn't unexpected after last week's advance good trade report," said Nationwide Financial Markets Economist Oren Klachkin. "We think the headline exaggerates how much net trade will weigh on Q1 GDP growth since a surge in gold im...