Factories aid bumpy recovery, housing still weak

[ProSense]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON – New government data offered a mixed picture of the economic recovery Tuesday, as U.S. manufacturing activity grew in July at the fastest pace in nearly a year while the outlook for the housing market remained dim.

Auto plants stayed open when they normally close for summer renovations and businesses replaced worn-out equipment. That helped boost factory output 1.1 percent — the biggest increase since August 2009.

Overall output at the nation's factories, mines and utilities rose 1.0 percent last month, the Federal Reserve reported. That followed a decline of 0.1 percent in June, the first drop in more than a year.

Construction of new homes and apartments rose 1.7 percent last month, the Commerce Department said. But the gains were driven by a 32.6 percent surge in apartment and condominium construction, a small fraction of the market.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100817/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/us_economy_9

[ProSense]

1. More

Industrial Production, Capacity Utilization increase in July

by CalculatedRisk

From the Fed: Industrial production and Capacity Utilization

Industrial production rose 1.0 percent in July after having edged down 0.1 percent in June, and manufacturing output moved up 1.1 percent in July after having fallen 0.5 percent in June. A large contributor to the jump in manufacturing output in July was an increase of nearly 10 percent in the production of motor vehicles and parts; even so, manufacturing production excluding motor vehicles and parts advanced 0.6 percent. The output of mines rose 0.9 percent, and the output of utilities increased 0.1 percent. At 93.4 percent of its 2007 average, total industrial production in July was 7.7 percent above its year-earlier level. The capacity utilization rate for total industry moved up to 74.8 percent, a rate 5.7 percentage points above the rate from a year earlier but 5.8 percentage points below its average from 1972 to 2009.

Click on graph for larger image in new window.



This graph shows Capacity Utilization. This series is up 9.8% from the record low set in June 2009 (the series starts in 1967).

Capacity utilization at 74.8% is still far below normal - and well below the the pre-recession levels of 81.2% in November 2007.

Note: y-axis doesn't start at zero to better show the change.

The second graph shows industrial production since 1967.



This is the highest level for industrial production since Oct 2008, but production is still 7.3% below the pre-recession levels at the end of 2007.

The increase in July was above the consensus of a 0.5% increase in Industrial Production, and an increase to 74.5% for Capacity Utilization.

[Kolesar]

2. If Ray-gun could get reelected after his recession numbers, ...

President Obama ought to do ok.