factory index

Manufacturing New Orders Plunge -5.2% for September 2012

The Manufacturers' Shipments, Inventories, and Orders report shows factory new orders plunged -5.2% for August 2012. This Census statistical release is called Factory Orders by the press and covers both durable and non-durable manufacturing orders, shipments and inventories. This is the largest monthly drop since January 2009, although July showed a 2.6% increase.

Industrial Production Another Zero for February 2012

The Federal Reserve's Industrial Production & Capacity Utilization report, G.17, shows zero change in industrial production for February 2012, but January was revised up, from 0% to 0.4%. Autos has some bad news, the auto & parts index dropped, -1.1% for February, but this is after autos had a meteoric soar of +8.6% in January. This report is also known as output for factories and mines.

Don't Let the Big Fat Zero for January 2012 Industrial Production Fool You

The Federal Reserve's Industrial Production & Capacity Utilization report, G.17, shows zero change in industrial production for January 2012. The culprit was utilities and the Fed blames the weather. Warming temperatures in winter cause home energy production to drop beyond their typical output levels. The big fat industrial production zero hides some very promising changes.

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