Investing.com - Industrial production in the U.S. fell for the third straight month in October, dampening optimism over the health of the economy, official data showed on Tuesday.
In a report, the Federal Reserve said that industrial production decreased by a seasonally adjusted 0.2% last month, disappointing expectations for a gain of 0.1%. Industrial production fell by 0.2% in September.
Meanwhile, manufacturing production rose by a seasonally adjusted 0.4%, beating forecasts for a 0.2% increase and following a decline of 0.1% in September.
The report also showed that the capacity utilization rate, a measure of how fully firms are using their resources, dipped to 77.5% in October from 77.7% a month earlier, in line with expectations.
EUR/USD was trading at 1.0668 from around 1.0663 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.5212 from 1.5206 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 123.30 from 123.34 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 99.58, compared to 99.61 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher open. The Dow futures pointed to a gain of 68 points, or 0.39%, at the open, the S&P 500 futures indicated a rise 6 points, or 0.27%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures increased 14 points, or 0.31%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,079.20 a troy ounce, compared to $1,078.60 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $41.41 a barrel from $41.32 earlier.