The U.S. exported a record amount of oil and fuel in April, helping to narrow the nation’s trade gap while giving the economy a lift. The country shipped $19.9 billion in petroleum—a category that includes crude oil, liquefied gases and fuels such as gasoline—to other countries in April, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. That set a record after adjusting for inflation and seasonal factors. The U.S. is exporting four times as much petroleum each month as it did a decade ago. The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services—after surging in 2017 and early 2018—fell 2.1% in April, the second straight month of contraction. The declines reflected both rising exports and falling imports. The country still runs a big trade deficit, which stood at $46.2 billion in April and has been expanding over time. In the first four months of the year, the gap increased 11.5% compared with the […]