Your Economy (No Politics)

[Bullwinkle]

U.S. industrial output rises 0.7% on cooler temps -
Friday, March 17, 2006 2:41:27 PM
http://www.afxpress.com


WASHINGTON (AFX) - U.S. industrial output increased 0.7% in February as cooler weather boosted utility production, the Federal Reserve said Friday

With auto production falling 0.8%, manufacturing output was flat, the slowest month since September. Technology production rose 2.3%

Utility output jumped 7.9% in February after plunging 11.5% in the previous month, the warmest January on record

Mining output fell 0.5%. Capacity utilization in industry - a key gauge of supply-side inflationary pressures - rose to 81.2%, matching the high for this economic expansion. Over the past 33 years, capacity utilization has averaged 81%

Capacity utilization in manufacturing declined to 80.4% from 80.5%

The Federal Reserve is expected to raise overnight interest rates by a quarter percentage point to 4.75% on March 28. Fed officials have cited potential inflationary pressures from high rates of resource utilization, in industrial as well as in labor markets. Economists polled by MarketWatch were expecting output to rise 0.8% after a revised 0.3% decline in January. Capacity utilization was expected to rise to 81.4% from 80.8%. In the past 12 months, industrial production has risen 3.3%. Output in manufacturing is up 4.2%. Industrial capacity has grown 1.8%

Production of consumer goods increased 0.8%, primarily because of utility output. Production of consumer durables increased 0.1%

Production of business equipment increased 0.1%, as higher production of information technology offset declines in transportation equipment and machinery

Motor vehicle output fell 0.8% and is now down 2.1% for the past year. Assemblies dropped to 11.43 million seasonally adjusted annual units from 11.78 million in January

Output of selected high-technology industries climbed 2.3% and is now up 21.8% for the past year

http://www.fxstreet.com/nou/noticies/afx/noticia.asp?pv_noticia=1142606485-f05e0f08-24890