Supply Chain Research

The outlook for U.S. trade is positive, but is lagging the broader economy. The ISM manufacturing outlook shows managers’ expectations broadly reached the highest since May 2004 last month at 60.8% (50.0% represents expansion). The export measure increased from a month earlier to 57.0%, which was ahead of the import figure of 54.0%. That contrasts with August’s trade result where imports did better than exports. In a global context the accelerating U.S. export outlook reflects the result seen in China and Japan, while Europe also remains in positive territory. The global trade growth see...