The Federal
Reserve reported on Thursday that the U.S. industrial production fell 0.4 m-o-m
in September, following a revised 0.8 percent m-o-m advance in August
(originally a 0.6 percent m-o-m increase).
Economists had
forecast industrial production would edge down 0.1 percent m-o-m in September.
According to
the report, the manufacturing production decreased 0.5 percent m-o-m, due to a
strike at General Motors (GM), U.S. major manufacturer of motor vehicles. Excluding
motor vehicles and parts, the overall index and the manufacturing index each declined
0.2 percent m-o-m. Meanwhile, mining production dropped 1.3 percent m-o-m,
while utilities output grew 1.4 percent m-o-m.
Capacity
utilization for the industrial sector decreased 0.4 percentage point m-o-m in
September to 77.5 percent. That was 0.2 percentage point below economists’
forecast and 2.3 percentage points below its long-run (1972-2018) average.
In y-o-y terms,
the industrial output dropped 0.1 percent in September, following an unrevised
0.4 percent gain in the prior month.
For the third
quarter, industrial production increased 1.2 percent y-o-y, following declines
of about 2 percent y-o-y in both the first and the second quarters.