US Industrial Production Unexpectedly Jumped In April

Despite a bloodbath in regional Fed manufacturing surveys, US industrial production and manufacturing activity jumped (unexpectedly) in April.

Headline Industrial Production rose 0.5% MoM in April (up from the 0.5% MoM rise in March and well ahead of the 0.0% change expected). However, on a YoY basis, industrial production remain languishing around unchanged…

Source: Bloomberg

Additionally, after a 0.8% MoM decline in March (revised down from -0.5%), US Manufacturing production rose 1.0% MoM (smashing the 0.1% MoM expectation)…

Source: Bloomberg

However, even that was not enough to get Manufacturing back above 0 on a YoY basis.

Capacity Utilization picked up modestly too…

Is this the ‘soft landing’ everyone hoped for? ‘Soft’ sentiment surveys say otherwise…

Or is it just more manufactured data?