he counts: The Federal Reserve said Thursday that industrial production dropped 0.6% in July. It had been four months since the last drop.
A poll of experts by The Wall Street Journal found that the drop was bigger than the 0.1% drop that was expected.
Utilization of capacity fell from 78.4 in June to 77.8 in July.
The capacity-utilization rate shows how much the country’s companies, mines, and utilities can actually run.
Important facts: In July, manufacturing fell 0.3% after staying the same the month before.
After going up 0.3% in June, the production of cars and parts went down 7.8%. If you take out cars, the total factory output fell 0.2%.
In July, the output of utilities fell 3.7%. The amount of oil and natural gas mined stayed the same after going down 0.1% the previous month.
The Federal Reserve said that Hurricane Beryl shut down petrochemical and related businesses in July, which slowed growth by 0.3% percentage points.
In general, high interest rates have made it hard for manufacturers over the past year. Wells Fargo economists said that the likely start of Fed easing in September would give the sector some breathing room, but that a full recovery “remains a ways off.”
Stocks SPX 1.54% went up at the start of trading on Thursday, and the 10-year Treasury yield TMUBMUSD10Y 3.935% went up 10 basis points to 3.945% in early morning trading. This was due to news that retail sales were strong in July.
