Industrial Production Soars 0.9% in December

Next week, we’re going to get our first look at the Q4 GDP report, and it could be a good one. We got a sneak preview today with the industrial production report for December. It said that industrial production increased by 0.9% last month. Economists were expecting just 0.4%.

The industrial sector is being supported by a strengthening global economy and a weakening dollar, which is helping to make U.S. exports more competitive relative to those of the nation’s main trading partners. A survey early this month showed an acceleration in factory activity in December, with a measure of new orders recording its best reading since January 2004.

Mining production increased 1.6 percent amid a rebound in oil and gas well drilling. Utilities production accelerated 5.6 percent last month after declining 3.1 percent in November.

Bitter cold gripped a large part of the country at the end of December. The surge in utilities demand bodes well for consumer spending in the fourth quarter.

Industrial production is important to watch because the data started to decline in November 2014 and bottomed out in March 2016. Since then, industrial production has ground its way higher and has started to accelerate in recent months.

In the past ten years, industrial production has increased by 2%.

Posted by on January 17th, 2018 at 11:23 am


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