**MNI 5 THINGS: US IP Stronger Than Expected, +0.7%>

--5 Things We Learned From Industrial Production Data

By Holly Stokes

     WASHINGTON (MNI) - The following are the key points from the 

Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization data for April 

released by the Federal Reserve Wednesday: 

     - Industrial production came in stronger than the 0.6% increase 

expected, rising 0.7%. As previewed in an MNI 5 Things, anlysts have a 

slight tendency to underestimate IP in April, so this follows the trend. 

This gain follows an upward revised March, but downward revised 

February, January, and December. 

     - Utilities surged 1.9%. While a strong gain, this should come as 

little surprise to analysts, as they had expected utilities to rise due 

to April being the coldest in 21 years. This comes after utilities rose 

an upward revised 6.1% in March, fueled by four Nor'easters in the 

month. 

     - The already released employment report showed a 0.5% rise in 

manufacturing hours worked and IP manufacturing was expected to follow 

suit. As expected, IP manufacturing rose 0.5% in the month. This follows 

a string of downward revisions to previous months.   

     - Capacity utilization came in at 78.0%, below the 78.4% expected. 

This reading is up 0.4pp from a downward revised March. Manufacturing 

capacity utilization rose by 0.3pp to 75.8% from a downward revised 

March. 

     - Mining rose by 1.1%, following March's downward revised 0.8% 

increase, putting the year/year at 10.6%. This upward momentum was 

expected by analysts, given te large gain in rig counts. 

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