New Britain herald., 1930-05-29
Stock Prices Keep Upward Trend As Operators Feel Recovery of
 Business In Rather Near Future
Steel Shares Display Firm Tone Because of Expect. ed Pipe Line Construc- tion Projects.

New York, May .s LAp - Stock prices continued their leisurely and somewhat halting upward progress today, as professional operators, scanning the rather meager indus trial news at hand, still appeared to feel that the weight of the evidence favored substantial business recov- cry within a few months. Traders by and large, however, were wait ing to be shown.
 Perhaps the least susceptible of builish interpretation was the news from the steel industry, but steel shares as a group displayed a firm tone, as their sponsors felt that pipe line and heavy construction projects, together with indjcations of fair average rate of operation by motor manufacturers, would tend to sta bilize conditions during the summer months. Nevertheless. steel scrap prices continue to decline with fur ther cuts of 25 cents a ton appear ing at Chicago and Pittsburgh. Dow Jones &s Company's average price for eight important iron and steel products declined this week to s4s.- g ion, from S47.a4, and this average did not include cuts in sheets, slabs and forging billets.
 Such reports Of merchandise sales during May as are now available, however, indicates that the months record will not be far from that Of last year, which would be regarded in Wall street as highly favorable. The April comparisons were not con- elusive, owing to the late date Of Easter this year. Speculation for the rise was resumed in merchandise stocks today for the first time this week. Moreover, it was accepted as a particularly good augufy that one of the largest publishing houses booking for advertising for the sec ond half Of the year are now larger than at this time a year ago. The rail shares. however. continued to reflect light movement of freight. On the basis of information now at hand it is estimated that April gross for all class 1 carriers was approximate ly r per cent below April, 1929, as compared to drop of l2 1-2 per cent in March.
 Trading Restricted
 Trading was restricted. of course. by the fact that the. market closes tNio, ho ~ bo many traders. in anticipation of dull day. left town yesterday. The preparation for three-day closing seemed 10 call out as much short covering as profit taking. despite the moderate progress made this week. Some Of the swift moving shares made substantial gains.
 Worthington Pump sold up more than : points 10 above 167, a gain in excess of 100 points from the years low. Columbian Carbon made a similar advance. In the steels, Spang Chalfant normally not very active. rose several points in active trading. Shares gaining three points or more included American Tobacco E, Macy. sSears Roebuck, Safeway Stores, Jewel Tea, and A. NJ. Byers. Several of the food shares were we'll bought. Ma tional Biscuit, Bordens and National Dairy reaching the best levels Of the year. Other shares making fair progress included Air Reduction. Procter and Gamble, Drug, Inc, Curtiss Publishing. Goodyear, Gen. eral Asphalt and United Cigar Stores preferred. Tn the rails, Chesapeake and Ohio dropped points, then rallied moderately.