Investing.com – Industrial production in the U.S. was unchanged in February after the prior month’s decline, missing consensus and dampening optimism over the health of the economy, official data showed on Friday.
In a report, the Federal Reserve said that industrial production was unchanged from the prior month in February, worse than expectations for a 0.2% advance.
Industrial production fell by 0.1% in the first month of the year, whose figure was revised up from a previously reported decline of 0.3%.
Meanwhile, manufacturing production increased by a seasonally adjusted 0.5% last month, better than forecasts for a 0.4% rise and following a gain of 0.5% in January that was revised up from an initial 0.2% gain.
The report also showed that the capacity utilization rate, a measure of how fully firms are using their resources, unexpectedly slipped to 75.4% in February from 75.5% a month earlier.
January’s data was revised up from an initial reading of 75.3%
Analysts had expected an increase from the initial January reading to 75.5%.
After the report, EUR/USD was trading at 1.0741 from around 1.0736 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.2363 from 1.2357 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 113.05 from 113.11 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 100.15, compared to 100.18 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a mixed open. The Dow futures gained 27 points, or 0.13%, the S&P 500 futures advanced 2 points, or 0.09%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures slipped 1 point, or 0.02%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,229.65 a troy ounce, compared to $1,230.05 ahead of the data, while crude oil was at $49.06 compared to $49.13 earlier.