U.S. Industrial Production Unexpectedly Inches Up 0.1% In December

(RTTNews) - A report released by the Federal Reserve on Wednesday showed an unexpected uptick in U.S. industrial production in the month of December.

The Fed said industrial production inched up by 0.1 percent in December, while revised data showed production was unchanged in November.

Economists had expected industrial production to come in unchanged compared to the 0.2 percent increase originally reported for the previous month.

The modest increase in industrial production came as manufacturing output also crept up by 0.1 percent in December after rising by 0.2 percent in November.

Mining output also advanced by 0.9 percent in December after tumbling by 1.0 percent in November, while utilities output slumped by 1.0 percent in December after falling by 0.7 percent in November.

"Industrial production performed better than expected last month thanks to mining's resiliency and further gains in motor vehicle and parts as more automotive suppliers return to a normal operation following the United Auto Workers union strike," said Bernard Yaros, Lead U.S. Economist at Oxford Economics.

"Utilities output slumped due to unseasonably warm weather," he added. "We estimate that warmer-than-average weather shaved up to 0.3ppt off the m/m change in overall industrial production in December."

The report also said capacity utilization in the industrial sector came in at 78.6 percent in December, unchanged from a revised reading for November.

Economists had expected capacity utilization to edge down to 78.7 percent from the 78.8 percent originally reported for the previous month.

Capacity utilization in the mining sector rose to 93.8 percent, while capacity utilization in the manufacturing sector was unchanged at 77.1 percent and capacity utilization in the utilities sector fell to 70.0 percent.