U.S. Industrial Production, Manufacturing Output Strengthens

Connecting the Dots monitors all major economic announcements in the United States and Canada, but MSCI also offers industrial metals industry-specific data products that provide much deeper analysis and insight. Visit MSCI’s website and click on Industry Data to learn more about our Metals Activity Report (MAR), Momentum Monitors, and Economic Opportunity and Risk Tracker. Meanwhile, here are the major headlines from the last week:

• U.S. industrial production rose 1.1 percent in April. It was the fourth consecutive month of growth higher than 0.8 percent. Manufacturing output rose 0.8 percent while index for utilities increased 2.4 percent and the index for mining rose 1.6 percent. Industrial production in April was 6.4 percent higher than a year earlier.
• According to Statistics Canada, the country’s manufacturing sales rose 2.5 percent to $70.2 billion in March. The improvement largely was driven by a 9.1 percent increase in sales in the petroleum and coal product industry and a 6.5 percent increase in sales primary metals’ sales. Higher prices also contributed to the higher sales figure. Wholesale sales rose 0.3 percent, meanwhile, to $79.8 billion. The largest increases in that category came in building material and supplies and the motor vehicle and motor vehicle accessories and parts subsectors.
• Regional manufacturing readings so far in May have indicated a softening in the sector. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said its current activity index fell 15 points to 2.6 in May, its lowest reading in two years. Despite the overall reading, the index for new orders rose four points to 22.1 and the current shipments index climbed 16 points to 35.3, its highest reading since October 2020. Meanwhile, after strong growth in April, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said the general business conditions index of its manufacturing survey fell 36 points to -11.6. New orders fell while shipments were down at the fastest pace since early in the pandemic. Read the full report here.
• The Conference Board’s Leading Economic Index (LEI), a key indicator of future U.S. growth, decreased by 0.3 percent in April to 119.2 following a 0.1 percent increase in March. The LEI is now up 0.9 percent over the six-month period from October 2021 to April 2022. Read more here.
• According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 218,000 individuals filed for federal unemployment benefits for the first time during the week that ended May 14, an increase of 21,000 from the previous week’s level. The four-week moving average was 199,500, an increase of 8,250 from the previous week. For the week that ended May 7, 1.317 million Americans continued to receive jobless benefits, a decrease of 25,000 from the previous week. That number was at its lowest since December 27, 1969. The four-week moving average of continuing claims also fell.
• In other economic news: the number of new homes under construction in the United States fell 0.2 percent between March 2022 and April 2022, but was up 14.6 percent from April 2021 to April 2022; existing U.S. home sales were down 2.4 percent for April and 5.9 percent year-over-year; and consumer prices in Canada increased 6.8 percent between April 2021 and April 2022, the highest rate of acceleration in 22 years.