US Goods Trade Deficit Narrows Sharply; Core Capital Goods Shipments Strong

Shipping containers are unloaded from a ship at a container terminal at the Port of Long Beach–Port of Los Angeles complex in Los Angeles on April 7, 2021. Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

WASHINGTON—The U.S. trade deficit in goods narrowed sharply in June as exports surged, while business spending on equipment remained strong.

The better-than-expected reports from the Commerce Department on Wednesday left economists scrambling to upgrade their gross domestic product estimates for the last quarter, which had ranged from negative to barely growing. The data were published ahead of the release on Thursday of the advance second-quarter GDP estimate.