NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Production from the nation's factories, mines and utilities rose at a faster pace in November, the Federal Reserve said Friday, beating Wall Street expectations.
The report showed industrial production rose 0.9 percent in November after rising a revised 0.4 percent in October. Economists, on average, expected production to rise 0.5 percent, according to Briefing.com.
Capacity utilization, the percentage of production capacity factories used in the month, was 75.7 percent, compared with a revised 75.1 percent in October. Economists expected a capacity utilization rate of 75.4 percent, according to Briefing.com.
U.S. stock prices rose in early trading on a morning chock full of economic news, including a Labor Department report showing core consumer price inflation shrank for the first time in 21 years in November. Treasury bond prices also rose.
In the Fed's report, factory output rose 0.9 percent in November, helped by a jump of 1.7 percent in production of business equipment.
Mining output rose 0.6 percent, following October's 0.5 percent decline, while production at utilities increased 1.4 percent, following a 2 percent gain in October.
At 75.7 percent, the rate of capacity utilization is still 5.6 percentage points below its 1972-2002 average. With factory equipment sitting idle, and with millions of Americans still unemployed, the Fed has had little incentive to raise interest rates.
Last week, the Fed left its key overnight lending rate at its lowest level in 40 years, indicating that inflation was still a distant threat to the economy, despite the third quarter's blistering economic growth rate, higher commodity prices and other signs of potential inflation.
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