US November industrial output comes in slightly below forecasts

US industrial production rose last month at its fastest clip since August and economists believed stronger readings lay ahead.

According to the Department of Commerce, industrial production expanded at a month-on-month pace of 0.6% in November, boosted by a jump of 1.7% in mining output and of 3.3% in that of utilities.

Manufacturing output on the other hand was flat after a 0.1% dip in the month before.

Downwards revisions to readings for the previous two months however meant that total production in fact printed a shade below economists' forecasts for last month.

That was reflected in the rate of capacity utilisation, which came in at 78.5%, below forecasts for a reading 78.6%, albeit above the prior month's reading of 78.1%.

By major market groups, business equipment and construction were weakest, with output of both down by 0.2%.

Commenting on the data, Commerce pointed out how a nearly 2.0% increase in the production of consumer energy products was almost completely offset by a drop of 0.5% in the output of non-energy durables.

In parallel, production of business equipment declined by 0.25%, while that of defence and space equipment was unchanged.

Versus a year earlier, industrial output was ahead by 3.9%.

Reacting to Friday's data, Mickey Levy at Berenberg Capital Markets said: "Continued declines in inventory-sales ratios across industries suggest that healthy growth in sales are outpacing production. These trends point to elevated levels of production in coming months.

"Real business fixed investment growth was surprisingly sluggish in Q3, but the robust gains in IP and still elevated business sentiment suggest forward momentum."