US industrial production falls amid global shortage of semiconductors

The Federal Reserve said today that US manufacturing production fell 0.1% in June after rising 0.9% in May and analysts had expected manufacturing production to rise 0.2% in June. Production in factories grew at an annual rate of 3.7% in the second quarter of this year after it grew by 2.3% in the first quarter, production in car factories declined by 6.6% in June, and production of cars and spare parts shrank at an annual rate of 22.5% in the second quarter of this year.

Industrial production excluding automobiles rose 0.4% in June with mining up 1.4% and utilities rebounding 2.7%, industrial production grew at a 5.5% rate in the second quarter of this year after rising 3.6% in the first quarter.