US industrial production jumps in December

US industrial production jumped at the tail-end of 2016 as utilities output soared, albeit amid downwards revisions for data from prior months.

Total production rose by 0.8% month-on-month and 0.5% year-on-year, according to the Federal Reserve.

That was significantly ahead of the 0.4% rise month-on-month which economists had penciled in.

However, the preliminary estimate for November was revised down from a fall of 0.4% on the month to a decrease of -0.7%.

By major market groups, production of Final products was up by 0.9% on the month (consumer goods: 1.1%; business equipment: 0.7%), that of Non-industrial supplies by 0.1% (construction: -0.3%) and that of Materials by 1.0%.

Output in the Mining sector was flat in comparison to November while that of Utilities rocketed 6.6%.

Manufacturing production grew by 0.2% on the month, although readings for July and September were both marked down by a tenth of a percentage point.

For the fourth quarter of 2016 as a whole, factory output was unchanged versus the same period of last year.

The expansion in the production of durable goods offset declines in non-durable goods.

The degree of industrial capacity utilisation increased by 0.4 percentage points to 75.5% (consensus: 74.4%).