U.S. December Industrial Production - Aircraft rebound but gains broad based
December industrial production has shown a stronger than expected 0.9% increase with manufacturing up by 0.6%. 0.2% of the increase came from aircraft as Boeing output recovered from a recent strike but the gains go well beyond that.
Aerospace and miscellaneous transport equipment rose by 6.3% after a 0.5% rise in November and losses of 6.2% in October and 8.0% in September, so the rebound may still have more to go. Autos were a marginal negative in December with manufacturing output up by 0.7% ex autos.
Mining with a 1.8% increase and utilities with a 2.1% increase both comfortable more than fully reversed declines seen in November.
Q4 output still declined for a second straight quarter, overall production by 0.8% annualized and manufacturing by 1.2%, though an increase would have been seen without the Boeing strike and stronger data in December is consistent with the ISM manufacturing report.
Capacity utilization at 77.6% from 77.0% is the highest since July but still below every month seen in 2023. Manufacturing capacity utilization also stands at 77.6%.
