Industrial Production Rises 0.6%

On the economic news front this morning, the Federal Reserve reported that Capacity Utilization rose last month to 79.1%. That’s close to a six-year high. In theory, that’s supposed to be an early warning sign of inflation, but I don’t think it’s a very good barometer. During much of the 1980s and 90s, Capacity Utilization was much higher than where we are now, and inflation wasn’t much of an issue.

The Fed also reported that U.S. Industrial Production jumped 0.6% last month. Economists had been expecting an increase of 0.5%. The rise for May is especially good to see after the drop of 0.3% we had in April. In the past year, Industrial Production is up 4.3%.

The Fed meets tomorrow and on Wednesday. Expect to see another tapering announcement. The FOMC will also update their economic projections.

Posted by on June 16th, 2014 at 10:21 am


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