WASHINGTON — The nation's industrial output fell for the fourth straight month in February, with factories operating at their lowest level in six decades of record-keeping. Analysts forecast more production cuts to come as companies are battered by recessions at home and abroad.

The Federal Reserve reported yesterday that industrial output dropped by 1.4 percent last month, slightly larger than the 1.2 percent decline economists had expected.

The weakness included a 0.7 percent fall in manufacturing output, which pushed the operating rate at the nation's factories down to 67.4 percent of capacity last month, the lowest level on records that go back to 1948.

The drop in manufacturing output occurred even though production at the nation's auto plants actually rose sharply after four straight months of declines.

Despite the news, Wall Street stocks pushed higher for a fifth straight day. They were bolstered by reassuring comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in a television interview that the recession would probably be over by year's end if the government's program to boost the banking system succeeds.

But private economists viewed the further plunge in industrial production as another sign of how weak the economy is at present. The recession that began in December 2007 is already the longest in a quarter-century, with the economy plunging at an annual rate of 6.2 percent in the fourth quarter. Many economists believe the downturn in the current quarter could be just as severe.

They said manufacturers are being hammered by the deep U.S. recession and a spreading downturn overseas that has cut sharply into demand for U.S. exports in major overseas markets.

"The manufacturing sector is still declining as firms struggle to pare inventories and come to grips with lower consumer spending, the housing collapse, evaporating exports and the full force of a capital spending downturn," said Daniel J. Meckstroth, chief economist for the Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI. "These negative forces are a lot to absorb and it is too early to see a turnaround."

Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS Global Insight, said one glimmer of hope could be seen in a slowdown in the rate of decline in manufacturing outside of autos. He said if this persists over the next few months, it could be an indication that manufacturing has at least hit a bottom and is not falling further.

Production at auto plants and auto parts manufacturers rose 10.2 percent in February after four straight months of declines, including a sharp 24.7 percent drop in January. But even with the rebound, the auto industry remains under tremendous pressures because consumers, faced with widespread layoffs, are not in a mood to make big-ticket purchases of autos or other goods.

The overall operating rate for manufacturing, mining and utilities fell to 70.9 percent of capacity in February, matching a record low set in December 1982, when the country was just beginning to pull out of the severe 1981-82 recession.