Sandy Screws Up Industrial Production

But numbers wouldn't have been that good without her, either

Industrial production fell unexpectedly in October because of Hurricane Sandy, the Federal Reserve reported on Friday, but factory growth appeared at a standstill even aside from the storm.

Production at the nation's mines, factories and refineries contracted 0.4 percent last month, after a 0.2 percent increase in September, the Fed reported. It said the storm, which hit the East Coast at the end of October, cut output by nearly 1 percentage point. Utilities and producers of chemicals, food, transportation equipment, and computers and electronic products were the most affected, it said.