Even though output improved after that, the depressed January level held down the quarterly average.

However, the key quarterly average has dropped and is down to 33,700 over the three months to March.

But investment banking did particularly well, with revenues rising 53 percent, to $181 million in the first quarter from a quarterly average of $118 million in 1995.

Passengers board and deplane from four gates at a mandatory limit of 240 people a half-hour on a quarterly average.

"That's a staggering increase, since we have never seen the quarterly average for condos exceed $700,000," Mr. Miller said.

Total earnings in the first quarter will be about $161 billion, just above the quarterly average of $158 billion for last year.

That would easily outdistance the current deficit, which would total $627 billion, based on the quarterly average for the first half of this year.

Administration officials hailed the report, saying their analysis of long-term quarterly averages showed that a favorable movement in the trade balance is under way.

Most of the increase was in bond offerings, which totaled $122.7 billion, up from last year's quarterly average of $77.4 billion.

The herding was even more pronounced on the sell side after downgrades of stocks, with funds selling 8 percent more shares than the quarterly average.