After a brief jump in December, US industrial production was unchanged in February (thanks to tumble in utilities which offset modest manufacturing gains). Industrial Production peaked in the US in Nov 2014, as the US equity market took off after the end of QE3.
February saw Industrial production unchanged against expectations of a 0.2% MoM rise (and January was revised modestly higher).
But then again, when has real economic data mattered?
Manufacturing was in line at +0.5%, but utilities tumbled for the 2nd month in a row (down 5.7%) and Mining output rose 2.2%.
Most of the major non-energy market groups recorded increases in February. For a second consecutive month, however, a drop in the output of utilities contributed substantially to losses in the overall indexes for consumer goods, business supplies, and materials through their energy components.
The production of consumer goods moved down 0.4 percent overall, reflecting a drop in consumer energy products. The index for consumer durables was unchanged, as a loss of 3.6 percent in appliances, furniture, and carpeting was outweighed by increases in other groups. The production of consumer non-energy nondurables rose 0.3 percent because of improvements in foods and tobacco and in clothing. The output of business equipment moved up 0.7 percent, with both information processing equipment and industrial and other equipment recording increases.
The output of construction supplies jumped 1.3 percent; the index has advanced more than 4 percent over the past six months. The indexes for non-energy business supplies and non-energy materials each rose more than 1/2 percent. Within materials, both durable and nondurable materials posted gains.
via http://ift.tt/2nznXiL Tyler Durden