Industrial Production Dives and It's Not All Strike Related

Industrial production was down 0.8% in October with Manufacturing down 0.6%. Motor vehicles were down a whopping 7.1%.

Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization declined much more than expected 0.8%in October according to the Fed report. Economists at Econoday forecast a 0.4% decline.

Key Points

• Industrial production fell 0.8 percent in October after declining 0.3 percent in September.
• Manufacturing production decreased 0.6 percent in October. Much of this decline was due to a drop of 7.1 percent in the output of motor vehicles and parts that resulted from a strike at a major manufacturer of motor vehicles.
• It's not all strike-related. Weakness was across the board. Business equipment was down .06% month-over-month and a whopping 2.5% year-over-year.
• Construction is down for the third time in four months

Industrial Production vs Recessions

2014-2015 Energy Slump

This is not a replay of the 2014-2015 recession scare.

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Donald Broughton, founder of Broughton Capital and author the Cass Freight Index says the index signals contraction, possibly by the end of the year. That's just one one month away.