march 8  welcome to the home for realtime coverage of markets brought to you by reuters reporters you can share your thoughts with us at marketsresearchthomsonreuterscom data released on tuesday  and late monday  tells market watchers what they already knew demand is robust running circles around a slowly recovering supply chain the gap in the value of goods and services imported to the us versus those of domestic origin exported abroad ustbaleci widened more than expected in january to 897 billion the largest deficit on record read more the commerce departments reading was 26 billion bigger than the consensus forecast and was driven by surging imports as demand in the us continued to outpace the rest of the world a state of affairs which could bode ill for firstquarter economic growth net exports have been a drag on gdp over the last six quarters and the early data suggest another negative contribution in q1 writes rubeela farooqi chief us economist at high frequency economics who adds overall trade flows are at historic highs despite supply chain disruptions and logistical challenges the deficit is poised to remain elevated for now on ongoing strong demand for imports farooqi says the closely watched goods trade gap with china held steady at 364 billion in a separate report small business owners grew grumpier in february according to the national federation of independent business nfib read more the nfibs business optimism index usopineci shed 14 points to land at 957 the sourest reading since january 2021 weighed down by inflation concerns inflation continues to be a problem on main street leading more owners to raise selling prices again in february says bill dunkelberg nfibs chief economist the percentage of respondents identifying hot inflation as their biggest problem hit the highest level in 42 years and the net percent of participants hiking average selling prices reached a 48year high but its not all bad news according to ian shepherdson chief economist at pantheon macroeconomics capex intentions dipped two points but are holding up well and are consistent with the idea that business fixed investment will rise at a doubledigit pace over the next year he writes it should be noted that the nfib is a politically active membership organization and the index was last lower the month president joe biden was inaugurated finally in more ancient news on monday afternoon the federal reserve released its data on outstanding consumer credit uscredeci which increased by 684 billion marking an unexpected deceleration and missing estimates by a country mile economists expected total consumer credit debt to accelerate by 238 billion in january total consumer credit outstanding currently sits at about 44 trillion an increase in nonrevolving credit which includes big ticket items such as autos and tuition did the heavy lifting as revolving credit or credit card debt was essentially unchanged this bucks the trend a bit credit card spending has long since risen above prepandemic levels while nonrevolving credit a smaller piece of the total pie is yet to recover ground lost to covid it pays to remember credit outstanding is not the same as consumer spending an elevated saving rate has left the average consumer with stuffed piggy banks and fat wallets after a green start wall street took a uturn in morning trading extending mondays sell off which confirmed a correction for the dow and a bear market for the nasdaq crude prices continued to surge taking energy stocks spny with them cme emini nasdaq 100 futures have been beaten up pretty badly over the past three trading days in fact they ended monday at their lowest level since midmay 2021 which put them down 196 from their november19 record closing high of note the nasdaq composite ixic ended monday down 201 from its november19 record close officially putting it in bearmarket territory overnight action saw the futures fall as low as 1310325 before then snapping back with this reversal the futures have yet to violate their february 24 intraday low at 1302575 meanwhile the daily rsi at just over 3000 is attempting to stabilize above its february 23 low at 2790 if so this momentum indicator will have the potential to establish a second higherlow vs its latejanuary trough of 17533 such a convergence could signal building positive momentum and therefore the potential for a surprise upside turn in that event however the futures would still have to contend with stiff resistance in the form of the descending 30day moving average dma which has been consistently capping strength since earlytomid january additionally since latenovember the rsi has been exhibiting bearish behavior by being unable to muster enough strength to reclaim the 7000 overbought threshold thus on any strength traders will be eyeing futures action closely vs the 30dma along with the rsi to add confidence in the sustainability of any bounce read more on a break of 13025 the next support is at the midmay low of 12896 this is just ahead of the 382 fibonacci retracement of the entire march2020november2021 advance at 1287357 for tuesdays live markets posts prior to 0900 est1400 gmt  click here terence gabriel is a reuters market analyst the views expressed are his own