The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-03-19
MORE BUSINESS |S FEATURE IF WEEK
 WITH INDUSTRIES
Steel Output Growing While Prices Are Still Mov-
 ing Upward

NEW YORK, March 1s.-(By As- sociated ress.)-Reports of in- creased business and hesitating speculative markets were features of the past week in trade and finance: All signs point to the continuance of the industrial revival, which has now reached a point where the vol ume of the countrys production probably exceeds anything on record.
 Steel output is still growing ana prices are still rising, railroad traf- fife is extraordinarily large. textile mills are fully employed, automobile makers are working at top speed and the oil and building industries are flourishing. Retail trade also IS reported to be excellent.
 Steel prices have reached the stage which promises to develop resistance on the part of consumers, but the effect is not a marked one, ana strong demand for early bookings still is apparent.
 Production is in excess of 90 per cent of war-inflated steel capacity and is believed to be about equal to current consumption. The keen de- mand is thought to come from a de- sire to enlarge stocks and to insure future supplies.
 Cotton Business Good.
 Cotton furnished number of in- teresting sidelights on the situation.
 For one thing, publication of the
 census bureaus report on consump- tion by American mills during Feb
 ruary showed that the high daily
 rate of January had been exceeded.
 despite the maintenance of high | prices. Meanwhile the commodity
 itself rallied sharply and rose to new
 high levels, the May future com | manding as much as 3169 cents. AS
 the week closed, a demand by the | Fall River textile council for ,.
 per cent increase in wages of cotton | workers was announced. Thus. in
 sense, the cotton industry epitomized | the trend of things In the present | revival.
 | While two severe storms impaired l telegraphic communications and so | restricted activity in the more spec | ulative markets. they can hardly be held responsible for the indecision | displayed by these markets during | the week. The magnitude of recent | rises has created caution in the l minds of professional operators who l remember the behavior of the stock
 market last November. Conservative | commission houses have been advis- l ing caution in enlarging commit ments. In addition pause in specu- | lation is a natural aftermath of pe- | riods of pronounced activity. In
 most quarters it is considered that l the reactions of the past week or so 1 have been relatively moderate. | o O O
 Money Unchanged.
 Monetary conditions remain little l changed. The general feeling is tha.
 gradual and moderate tightening
 in money during April is likely. It
 is pointed out that goods have been and arc being produced in great vol
 ume and that as these goods pass | into the hands of middlemen and re | taiIers the demand for credit will in | crease. Bond prices meanwhile are somewhat heavy, particularly be- cause of the feeling that money will
 work higher partly because of the 1 growing demand for funds for com
 mercial purposes and partly because | the bond market is digesting a larga | volume of new issues.
 | Hope of Franco-German settle | ment made itself evident in the for 1 eign exchange market, the curren-
 cies of the continental allies rallyinS
 rather sharply.