Despite slumping sentiment surveys, 'hard' data continues to suggest the US economy is ticking along nicely with Industrial Production surging 0.7% MoM in January (better than the +0.4% MoM expected and well up from the downward revised +0.2% MoM in December).
This is the 3rd straight monthly increase in Industrial Production, lifting growth to 2.3% YoY - the best annual growth since Sept 2022...
Source: Bloomberg
Under the hood, US Manufacturing output rose 0.6% MoM (better than the +0.4% MoM expected and best monthly gain since Feb 2025)...
Source: Bloomberg
That is the fast annual growth in manufacturing since Feb 2022.
Capacity Utilization rose to 76.2% (below expectations),m extending the positive trend since the start of Trump's term...
Source: Bloomberg
Finally, circling back to the 'soft' survey data we noted at the beginning, we note that ISM Manufacturing exploded higher in January (after decoupling from hard data all year)...
Does make you wonder whether any of these surveys are real? Or did the Democrats being interviewed finally throw in the towel on the doomsaying?
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