Industrial Production Preview: Mixed Bag

The Federal Reserve is set to publish their monthly Industrial production figures for July at 8:30 ET, with consensus calling for a 0.4 percent gain, according to Bloomberg News, with estimates ranging from 0.2 to 0.7 percent. This is a slight uptick from June's reading of 0.3 percent. The Federal Reserve will also be releasing the capacity utilization rate, which is expected to show a slight weakening to 78.1 percent in July versus 78.4 percent in June. Industrial production measures the the output of factories, utilities, and mining, and is produced by the Federal Reserve to gauge overall economic strength. The capacity utilization rate is a measure of percentage of factory resources being employed, with a reading above 85 percent usually considered to be inflationary. According to Econoday, the Federal Reserve closely follows capacity utilization for early signs of building inflation. While industrial production has picked up over the last few months, it is still languishing well below the levels seen in 2014. In front of the release, S&P 500 futures are showing a loss of 0.3 percent.