United States Industrial Production Mom

Industrial production in the US fell by 0.7% mom in December of 2022, following an upwardly revised 0.6% decrease in November and more than market expectations of a 0.1% loss. It was the biggest drop in industrial activity since September 2021, as higher interest rates and prices weighed on demand. Manufacturing output dropped 1.3%, way more than expectations for a 0.3% decrease. The indexes for durable and nondurable manufacturing dropped 1.1% and 1.5%, respectively, while the index for other manufacturing (publishing and logging) stepped down 0.9%. Meanwhile, mining was down 0.9% while utilities rose 3.9%, driven by increases for both electric and natural gas utilities. Capacity utilization dropped 0.6 percentage point in December to 78.8%, a rate that is 0.8 percentage point below its long-run (1972–2021) average. Considering Q4, industrial production declined 1.7%.