- Blake Moret, Rockwell Automation Inc.
US industrial production remained unchanged unexpectedly last month, amid the weak heating demand. According to the Federal Reserve, the country's industrial output was flat on a seasonally adjusted basis in October, following the preceding month's downwardly revised fall of 0.2%. However, market analysts anticipated a slight increase of 0.2% in the reported month. Utilities production declined 2.6% last month, after dropping 3.0% in September. The Fed said milder weather than normal reduced the demand for heating during October, offsetting gains of 0.2% and 2.1% in the manufacturing and mining categories, respectively. Data also showed that capacity utilization fell 0.1% to 75.3%. Separately, the US Department of Labor said its Producer Price Index came in at 0.0% in October, whereas economists expected the Index to advance 0.3% as in the prior month. Nevertheless, on an annual basis, the PPI rose 0.8%, the largest increase since December 2014, compared to September's gain of 0.7%. In the meantime, the Energy Information Administration reported on Wednesday that US crude oil inventories increased to a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.3 million barrels in the week ended November 11, following the previous week's rise of 2.4 million barrels.
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