Reply #9: U.S. April industrial output jumps 0.7 pct [View All]

[Ghost Dog]

http://yahoo.reuters.com/news/articlehybrid.aspx?type=comktNews&storyID=2007-05-16T132824Z_01_N16190976_RTRIDST_0_USA-ECONOMY-OUTPUT-UPDATE-1.XML

WASHINGTON, May 16 (Reuters) - U.S. industrial production jumped a bigger-than-expected 0.7 percent in April on gains in utilities, auto and high-tech manufacturing output, a Federal Reserve report showed on Wednesday.

Capacity utilization at the nation's factories, mines and utilities was a slightly greater-than-expected 81.6 percent as manufacturing capacity use picked up.

Analysts polled by Reuters were expecting production to rise 0.3 percent and capacity use to rise to 81.5 percent.

Manufacturing output rose 0.5 percent in April, boosted by a 3.3 percent rise in motor vehicle and parts production and a 2.0 percent gain in computer and electronic product output, the Fed said.

Output at utilities gained 3.5 percent in a cooler-than-usual April, partly reversing a revised 7.5 percent drop in production at utilities the previous month, when it was unseasonably warm.

...

Industrial production in the first quarter was revised lower to a 0.9 percent annual rate of increase after a 1.5 percent drop in the last three months of 2006.

Production of consumer durables advanced 2.1 percent in April, an acceleration from an 0.3 percent rise in March. Apart from auto products, the output of home electronics rose 4.8 percent on gains in computers produced for households and in audio and video equipment, the Fed said.

Overall capacity utilization -- a measure of how close to full capacity factories, mines and utilities are running -- remains above its 1972-2006 average of 81 percent, the Fed said.