Capacity Utilization Jumps in July

Daily Finance details:

Don't write-off the U.S. economic recovery just yet. The nation's industrial sector, which has led the expansion but cooled recently, showed signs of renewed life in July, with industrial production climbing a better-than-expected 1%, the U.S. Federal Reserve announced Tuesday.

Capacity utilization jumped to 74.8% in July from 74.1% in June. The 74.8% utilization rate is 5.7% higher than a year ago, but is still 5.7 percentage points below its 1972 to 2009 average of 80.5%.

A Bloomberg survey had expected industrial production to rise 0.6% in July and the capacity utilization rate to rise to 74.5%. Industrial production fell 0.1% in June and rose 1.3% in May.

Source: Federal Reserve