Tuesday is trade report day in Canada and the U.S., and the numbers show very different pictures of the two economies.

In Canada, energy prices surged to near-record levels in March, pushing merchandise exports up 2.8% to $35.9 billion. Imports fell to $30 billion. Canada’s trade surplus with the rest of the world rebounded, in March, increasing by $1.1 billion to $5.9 billion. It fell during three of the previous four months.

South of the border the American trade deficit widened to its second highest level ever. While Washington focused its efforts on beating on Iraq, Americans imported more cars, televisions and oil. In March, the deficit in international trade in goods and services expanded to US$43.46 billion in March, up from a revised deficit of US$40.37 billion in February.

As a result of this record trade gap number, pre-equities trading on Wall Street is down, pointing to a weak day for North American equities.

Meanwhile, the Canadian dollar continued to trade around the US72¢ level. This morning is changing hands at US71.94¢, up 0.02 of a cent from Monday’s close.

Overseas, the shock waves of comments made by U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow, on the weekend that a weak greenback would be good for American exporters, continue to be felt.

Asian markets reacted to concern about the weak U.S. dollar. Tokyo’s Nikkei average fell 30.86 points to 8,190.26. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index dipped 36.53 points to 9,119.04. Profit takers have been blamed for the drop. Apparently they were motivated by optimism that the SARS outbreak is under control.

In Europe, stocks are also weak. At Tuesday midday, in London, the FTSE 100 has gained a mere 15.6 points to 4,003. The Frankfurt DAX is down 0.3%. The Paris CAC-40 is up a mere 0.4%.

Statistics Canada is reporting another round of census data. The median income before taxes of Canadian families, at $55,000, remained essentially unchanged from 1990 to 2000 after adjusting for inflation, according to new data from the 2001 Census.

Incomes of families in the bottom half of the income distribution showed little or no improvement through the 1990s. However, the 10% of families with the highest incomes experienced substantial gains. In 2000, the combined income before taxes of the 10% of families with the highest incomes accounted for 28% of total family income; in 1990, they accounted for 26% of all family income. The 10% of families with the lowest incomes made up less than 2% of all family income, the same as in 1990.

Census data also showed that the proportion of total income among working-age families that came from government transfer payments declined from 6.4% in 1990 to 5.6% in 2000.