U.S. Industrial Production Rises More Than Expected In May

Reflecting a substantial rebound in utilities output, the Federal Reserve released a report on Friday showing U.S. industrial production rose by more than expected in the month of May.

The Fed said industrial production climbed by 0.4 percent in May following a revised 0.4 percent decrease in April.

Industrial production had been expected to edge up by 0.2 percent compared to the 0.5 percent drop originally reported for the previous month.

The bigger than expected rebound in industrial production came as utilities output surged up by 2.1 percent in May after plummeting by 3.1 percent in April.

The report said manufacturing output also rose by 0.2 percent in May after falling by 0.5 percent in April, while mining output inched up by 0.1 percent following a 2.2 percent nosedive.

Additionally, the Fed said capacity utilization for the industrial sector crept up to 78.1 percent in May from 77.9 percent in April. Economists had expected capacity utilization to tick up to 78.0 percent.

Capacity utilization in the utilities sector climbed to 77.5 percent and capacity utilization in the manufacturing sector inched up to 75.7 percent, while capacity utilization in the mining sector dipped to 91.3 percent.