Investing.com – Industrial and manufacturing production in the U.S. rose almost twice as fast as expected in October, boosting optimism over the health of the economy, official data showed on Thursday.
In a report, the Federal Reserve said that industrial production increased by 0.9% in October from the previous month, compared to expectations for a rise of just 0.5% and a gaine of 0.4% in September that was revised from an initial 0.3% increase.
Meanwhile, manufacturing production increased by a seasonally adjusted 1.3% last month, compared to forecasts for a 0.6% rise and following the 0.4% advance registered in September that was revised upwards from an initial increase of 0.1%.
The report also showed that the capacity utilization rate, a measure of how fully firms are using their resources, settled at 77.0% in October, better than the forecast for a reading of 76.3% and compared to 76.4% (revised from 76.0%) a month earlier.