Mitchell Hartman

30-year mortgage rates, for example, or 15-year mortgage rates, or car loan rates.

A four and a half percent monthly increase in the U.S.

international trade deficit, says Thomas Ryan at Capital Economics.

Remember, the U.S.

is now the planet's top petroleum producer.

Gary Schlossberg at the Wells Fargo Investment Institute points out the value of our fuel exports rose nearly 25 percent in March.

Other exports are also getting a boost.

Still, the trade deficit did widen a bit in March.

And that's because while exports rose, imports rose even more, driven by demand for computer equipment to run AI data centers, also passenger vehicles and other consumer products.

which is good news, says nationwide economist Oren Klatchken.

The trade deficit is likely to hold pretty steady in coming months, predicts Mary Lovely at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Tariffs aren't causing wild swings in import flows like they did last year, and U.S.

demand for imports remains strong.

China has fallen from the top exporter to the U.S.

to number four, behind number one Taiwan, which supplies us with AI equipment, and also Vietnam and Mexico, where companies are moving more production to supply the U.S.

market.

I'm Mitchell Hartman for Marketplace.

Wilkins says more of those contracts should come if the rising cost of building supplies ever starts to ease.

I'm Daniel Ackerman for Marketplace.

Delta's certainly not immune to developments in the Strait of Hormuz and soaring jet fuel prices, says analyst Nicholas Owens at Morningstar.