The Federal Reserve reported on Tuesday the U.S. industrial production rose 0.6 m-o-m in February, following a revised 0.5 percent m-o-m decline in January (originally a 0.3 percent m-o-m drop).

Economists had forecast industrial production would increase by 0.4 percent m-o-m in February.

According to the report, the February advance was due to a 7.1 percent m-o-m surge in output of utilities, which was attributable to a return of temperatures to more typical levels following an unseasonably warm January. In addition, manufacturing output edged up 0.1 percent m-o-m in February; however, excluding a large gain for motor vehicles and parts and a large drop for civilian aircraft, factory output was unchanged. The mining production fell 1.5 percent m-o-m in February.

Capacity utilization for the industrial sector increased 0.4 percentage point m-o-m in February to 77.0 percent. That was 0.1 percentage point below economists' forecast and 2.8 percentage points below its long-run (1972-2019) average.

In y-o-y terms, the industrial output was unchanged in February, following a revised 1.0 percent fall in the prior month (originally a 0.8 percent decline).