Motor vehicle production is down 3 percent, utilities up 3.5 percent.
Please consider the Fed’s Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization report for September 2026.
Industrial production (IP) increased 0.7 percent in September after edging up 0.1 percent in August. In the third quarter, IP increased at an annual rate of 2.8 percent. Manufacturing output rose 0.3 percent in September. The index for mining moved up 0.2 percent, and the index for utilities increased 3.5 percent.
At 104.0 percent of its 2017 average, total IP in September was 2.2 percent above its year-earlier level.
Capacity utilization moved up to 76.9 percent in September, a rate that is 2.5 percentage points below its long-run (1972–2025) average.
Industrial Production Month-Over Month
- Production: +0.7 percent
- Manufacturing: +0.3 percent
- Motor Vehicles and Parts: -3.0 percent
- Consumer Durable Goods: -1.5 percent
- Utilities: +3.5 percent
Utilities have a relative importance weight of roughly 12.4–12.9 percent in the industrial production index.
Utilities Contribution to Industrial Production
Using the prior-month (August) weight of ~12.58 percent × 3.5 percent rise ≈ 0.44 percentage points.
Thus utilities contributed ~0.44 percentage points of the overall 0.7 percentage point rise, ~63 percent of the rise in IP in September.
Industrial production powered by data center usage and warm weather is not exactly the greatest thing.
Industrial Production Components
Industrial Production Percent Change from Year Ago
- Production: +2.2 percent
- Manufacturing: +1.4 percent
- Motor Vehicles and Parts: -0.8 percent
- Consumer Durable Goods: -2.8 percent
- Utilities: +8.7 percent
Motor vehicle production is very volatile. The recent net is negative but subject to huge swings.
Industrial Production Since 1972
Industrial Production Detail
The index details highlight manufacturing weakness and Utilities strength.
Manufacturing peaked right at the onset of the Great Recession at 106.6. Its highest rebound just prior to the Covid recession was 102.0.
The Manufacturing index has been rising lately but sits at an anemic 99.4 now, down 6.8percent in the past 19 years.
Consumer durable goods manufacturing roughly tracks tracking which has been miserable since the end of 2022.
Related Posts
October 13, 2026: Existing-Home Sales Meander Nowhere for Nearly Four Years
Since December 2022 sales have gone nowhere.
October 14, 2026: CPI Hotter than Expected in September, Up 0.65 Percent
The Fed should hike in October, but won’t until December.
October 15, 2026: Trump Promised to Reduce Energy Bills in Half. How’s He Doing?
Let’s check in on a Trump campaign promise.
Brent at $109 and climbing today. Anyone else having massive profitgasms on oil stonks? Sold calls and banked $2k today, I think oil will continue to go higher as Iran seems to be cranking up the attacks as election day gets closer to really stick it to Trump.
Next stop to sell calls at $115, let’s hope we get there by election day!
I’m sure glad I’m not someone that needs to buy diesel or gasoline, still don’t have a car! lol!
oh and don’t worry if oil tanks, that’s what dividends are for!
Too bad the one month 3.5% increase in utility production doesn’t likely equate to any significant annual increase in the number of US workers. Green energy added about 250k and 200K workers in 2023 and 2024, respectively. An 85k expected increase in 2025 was aborted with cancellation of projects and downsizing.
Big Oil wins; US workers to the compost pile.
How much will the equity markets be down from the SPX 6 Oct high by election day?
Afterall, Jesse Watters from Fox entertainment new, opines that equity 401 gains make the gas and diesel price increases ‘chump change’. And every citizen has a 401k, right, Jesse?
Jesse’s Mom is, conservatively, 10 times the man Jesse is.
we have seen stock market gains like this since….Joe Biden was President.
and we only had to borrow an additional couple trillion to do it.
good ol fox news.
Wonder how long this will keep up them the retreat from tech stocks over circular financing bubble business. No matter where it ends there’s one thing for certain: this is going to hurt.
Mr. T’s prediction in Rocky-III…..”PAIN”
Perhaps it is deserved for destroying every single law that would have easily prevented this from happening. Just in time for the glut of boomer retirees to hit the system with the expectation of a dignified final chapter.
Maybe this time we’ll learn from touching the stove. Profits over people is not a winning business strategy, it saps growth and gradually turns the economy about as competitive as Russia in 1985. Not to mention corrupt to the gills.
After a cat sits on a hot stove, he won’t sit on a stove again, hot or cold. That said, after investors get burned in the hot stove economy, will they ever sit in the economy again beyond what it takes to exist?
it won’t last much longer, Trump is in charge so the end game is a crash. And it’s going to hurt if you’re not hedged properly but that’s what the options market is for, to ease the hurt.