Industrial Production Slumps 0.6% In March

Industrial production fell a seasonally adjusted 0.6% in March, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday. The drop, the biggest since August 2012, was slightly larger than expected. Economists polled by MarketWatch had forecast a 0.5% decline after a 0.1% gain in February. As expected, mining and utilities output paced the decline last month. For the first quarter, industrial production was down at 1% annual rate, the first quarterly decline since the end of the recession. In March, manufacturing output rose 0.1%, the first gain since November. Excluding motor vehicles and parts, factory output declined. Capacity utilization dipped to 78.4% from 79.0% in February, slightly below the 78.5% consensus and the lowest since January 2014.