Preview: Due January 17 - U.S. December Industrial Production - Weak excluding autos and mining
We expect December industrial production to rise by 0.1% with a flat outcome from manufacturing. Data will look weak excluding gains in mining and autos. The Fed will be watching the data.
Auto output is likely to show a second straight gain, albeit more modest than in October, as it completes its recovery from strike activity in September.
Non-farm payrolls however showed aggregate hours worked in manufacturing declining by 0.2%, and we expect manufacturing output ex autos to decline by 0.2% for a second straight month.
Payroll data suggests a rise in mining output, but we expect weather-sensitive utilities output to be unchanged. We expect capacity utilization to be unchanged at 78.8% overall and to fall to 77.1% from 77.2% in manufacturing. Trend in capacity utilization is moving lower. 