President Barack Obama delivers remarks before a screening of the HBO ten-part World War II miniseries "The Pacific" in the Family Theater of the White House, March 11, 2010. Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, the two executive producers of "The Pacific", sit in the front row. March 11, 2010.

US industrial production rose just 0.1% in February, as the Northeast industrial belt was hit by severe snow storms. The almost flat performance in February came after a revised 0.9% January increase, up 0.2 % points from the initial reading.

The Federal Reserve said production was likely held down somewhat by winter storms in the Northeast. Manufacturing decreased 0.2% in February, with mixed results among its major industries. The output of mines rose 2.0%, while the index for utilities rose 0.5%. At 101.0% of its 2002 average, industrial output in February was 1.7% above its year-earlier level. Capacity utilization for total industry moved up 0.2 % to 72.7%, a rate 7.9% points below its average from 1972 to 2009.

The Fed said the production of consumer goods fell 0.4% in February. The index for consumer durables fell 2.3%, while the index for consumer nondurables edged up 0.1%. The decline in consumer durables was led by a drop of 4.4% in automotive products; other major components registered small declines. Despite the decrease in February, the output of consumer durables was up 9.2% from its year-earlier level as a result of an increase of 27.0% in automotive products; the indexes for the other major components of consumer durables were below their year-earlier levels. Among consumer nondurables in February, the output of non-energy goods fell 0.3%, with declines in all of the index's major components, while the output of energy goods increased 1.1%. The gain for consumer energy goods largely reflected a rebound in the production of refined petroleum products, which had decreased in the previous two months.

The output of business equipment rose 0.4% in February but remained 0.7% below its year-earlier level. Information processing equipment advanced 1.2%, about its average rate of increase over the previous three months. Industrial and other equipment moved up 0.3%. Transit equipment fell 0.9%, the fifth consecutive monthly decline for this index.

The production of defense and space equipment rose 1.3% in February and was 5.7% above its year-earlier level.

US Treasuries: The US Treasury reported today that foreign purchases of long-term securities were $19.1 billion.

• Net foreign purchases of long-term U.S. securities were $36.1 billion. Of this amount, net purchases by private foreign investors were $40.3 billion, and net purchases by foreign official institutions were negative $4.2 billion.
• US residents purchased a net $17.0 billion of long-term foreign securities.

China held $889 billion in Treasury securities at the end of January compared with $894.8 billion in December while Ireland held $39.1 billion, down from $43.6 billion in December.

China held $739.6 of US Treasury securities in January 2009. The country's total reserves are about $2.4 trillion.

Major foreign holders of Treasury securities.

Political problems within the Eurozone are going to get worse as debt-laden countries struggle with rising unemployment while attempting to cut budgets, Peter Dixon from Commerzbank Securities told CNBC Monday.