U.S. Industrial Production Climbs 0.8% Amid Rebound In Utilities Output

After reporting a drop in U.S. industrial production in the previous month, the Federal Reserve released a report on Wednesday showing that production rebounded strongly in the month of December.

The Fed said industrial production climbed by 0.8 percent in December after slumping by a revised 0.7 percent in November.

Economists had expected production to increase by 0.6 percent compared to the 0.4 percent drop originally reported for the previous month.

The rebound in industrial production reflected a bounce back in utilities output, which surged up by 6.6 percent in December after plunging by 4.6 percent in November.

The jump in utilities output, the largest since December of 1989, was largely because of a return to more normal temperatures following unseasonably warm weather in November.

Manufacturing output also rose by 0.2 percent in December after edging down by 0.1 percent in November, while mining output was flat after falling by 0.7 percent.

The report also said capacity utilization climbed to 75.5 percent in December from a revised 74.9 percent in the previous month. Economists had expected capacity utilization to rise to 75.4 percent.

Capacity utilization in the utilities sector spiked to 79.1 percent in December after tumbling to 74.3 percent in November.

The report said capacity utilization in the manufacturing and mining sectors also inched up to 74.8 percent and 78.1 percent, respectively.