A strong industrial production report for February shows the US continues to thaw from the harsh winter

A strong industrial production report for February shows the US continues to thaw from the harsh winter. Industrial production climbed 0.6% in February, a strong turnaround from the 0.2% decline in January. Last month's factory production gain was also the largest increase since last August. From this time last year, total industrial production has increased 2.8% - a good long-term signal for the economy. Of the three major industry groups, manufacturing and mining production showed an increase, while utility production declined by a small amount. The evidence is pretty clear - at least from this report - that weather was the driving factor behind the recent manufacturing slowdown in the US. Moving forward, it remains to be seen if an economic war with Russia will cause any damage to the seemingly fragile recovery in US manufacturing.