August's trade gap widened to $105.6 billion as companies brought in semiconductors and machinery and investors bought bullion. Higher prices explain part of the jump.
Americans bought more from abroad in August than in any month on record, and the mix of what came in says as much about the state of the economy as the headline gap.
The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services widened by $12.7 billion to $105.6 billion in August, from a revised $92.8 billion in July, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. Imports climbed $17.2 billion to a record $420.8 billion, swamping a $4.5 billion gain in exports to $315.2 billion. The goods deficit grew to $136.6 billion, partly offset by a $31.0 billion surplus in services.
Two forces did most of the work. Imports of industrial supplies rose $9.1 billion, led by crude oil, up $3.3 billion, and nonmonetary gold, up $3.1 billion. Capital goods imports rose $6.2 billion, including a $2.4 billion jump in semiconductors and $1.3 billion more in other industrial machinery. Computer accessories fell $1.6 billion.
Taken together, oil and gold account for about $6.4 billion of the $17.4 billion rise in goods imports, or roughly 37%. Both are price-sensitive: crude has surged with the disruption around the Strait of Hormuz, and gold has rallied as a haven. The chip and machinery purchases, by contrast, look like the hardware side of the corporate buildout in artificial-intelligence infrastructure.
Inflation-adjusted figures support the view that prices are inflating the headline. The real goods deficit widened 8.2% to $114.7 billion, compared with an 11.1% increase in nominal terms. That gap of nearly three percentage points is the portion of the deterioration explained by higher prices rather than greater import volumes.
The data cut two ways for the growth outlook. A wider real goods gap subtracts from third-quarter gross domestic product through net exports. At the same time, rising imports of capital equipment are a sign that businesses are still investing heavily at home.
Tariffs have not stopped the flow. The deficit with Canada widened by $4.1 billion to $7.1 billion in August. Even so, the cumulative deficit for the year to date remains $138.2 billion, or 19.9%, smaller than in the same period of 2025.
What to watch
The September trade report and the Treasury's quarterly refunding announcement are both due . A second straight month of heavy gold and crude imports would point to price effects; a continued climb in semiconductor and machinery imports would point to an investment cycle that is still accelerating.