The US Industrial economy turned and retreated last week (if pipeline scheduling is correct), as consumption continued to rally.The Production Index (In terms of its 28-day moving average of gas-flow scheduling into US industrial facilities) broke its string of three up-weeks, dropping to 122.6 (vs last weeks 123.2). In its raw dailies (above) the week was mildly soft throughout.
The Consumption Index surged (second gain in a row), rising to 149.2 (from last weeks revised 138.1). In its dailies the measure was soft early (over the weekend) then firmed Monday-on.
The Inventories measure (the cumulative weekly difference between the Production Index and the Consumption Index), continued its long-term decline.
The split between the gaining ways of consumption (breaking above previous short-term highs) vs retreating industrial production reversed the "polarity" of that relationship to negative (consumption trends diverging from industrial production), another worry to add to the bearishness of the internals.
If we could only get the industrial numbers back in line with consumption, we would have something meaningfully bullish for the economy.
Overall, the economy still looks uncertain going forward, with possibilities of either rapid-strengthening or rapid-weakening well-evident in the split between industry and consumers.
Overall... back to a flip of a coin (or flip of a political poll, or flip in current events, or flip in news reporting, etc).
-Robry825
