‘Soft Landing’ Narrative Nuked As US Industrial Production Plunges In December

US Industrial Production was expected to decline for the third straight month in December and it did, tumbling 0.7% MoM (and November’s 0.2% decline was revised down to a 0.6% drop)…

Source: Bloomberg

That lowered the YoY gain in industrial production to just 1.65%, the lowest since March 2021.

Under the hood, everything was red except utilities “as cold temperatures boosted the demand for heating”

Focusing in on manufacturing production, the picture was even worse with a 1.3% MoM tumble (2nd straight monthly decline)…

Source: Bloomberg

Capacity Utilization plunged more than expected to 78.7% (79.5% exp)…

Source: Bloomberg

Does any of that look like a soft landing?