US industrial production fell by 0.5% in March, compared with expectations for a 0.1% increase in a survey compiled by Bloomberg as of 7:35 am ET, and following an upwardly revised 0.7% increase in February.
Manufacturing production decreased by 0.1% after a 0.4% gain in the previous month, with a 3.7% decrease in motor vehicles and parts. Excluding the drop in motor vehicle production, manufacturing production would have been up 0.1% and overall industrial production would have been down 0.3%.
Mining production decreased by 1.2% after a 2.1% gain in February.
Utilities production declined by 2.3% after a 1.8% rebound in February with declines in the output of both natural gas and electric utilities.
Capacity utilization dropped to 75.7% in March from a 76.1% rate in February, compared with expectations for an increase to a rate of 76.3%.
The monthly industrial production report from the Federal Reserve measures production growth by manufacturers, utility producers and mining operations. The manufacturing data is broken down between products for use in the longer-term (durable) and shorter-term (non-durable), with vehicle production a key component. Also included is capacity utilization, which shows how much spare capacity producers have available.
A stronger-than-expected reading on industrial production is usually bullish for the stock market but may be bearish for the manufacturing, mining or utilities sectors depending on how that portion of the data performed in each month.
Overall, bonds prefer slower industrial production growth as a signal of more modest inflation but in times of tight supply, such as during the pandemic, it is possible to have both sluggish output and rising inflation.