The Federal Reserve reported on Friday the U.S. industrial production fell 0.3 m-o-m in January, following a revised 0.4 percent m-o-m decline in December (originally a 0.3 percent m-o-m drop).

Economists had forecast industrial production would decrease by 0.2 percent m-o-m in January.

According to the report, the January drop was due to a 4.0 percent m-o-m tumble in the output of utilities, which was attributable to a large decrease in demand for heating due to unseasonably warm weather. In addition, manufacturing output edged down 0.1 percent m-o-m in January as the production of civilian aircraft slowed significantly. Excluding the production of aircraft and parts, factory output advanced 0.3 percent m-o-m. The mining production rose 1.2 percent m-o-m in January.

Capacity utilization for the industrial sector decreased 0.3 percentage point m-o-m in January to 76.8 percent. That was in line with economists' forecast and 3.0 percentage points below its long-run (1972-2019) average.

In y-o-y terms, the industrial output dropped 1.0.8 percent in January, following a revised 0.9 percent fall in the prior month (originally a 1.0 percent decline).