Evening star., 1938-08-28
|ND|CES Of WEEK
AREENC0URAC|NC..
|NSOME SECTORS:
Improvement Better Than
Seasonal Is Noted for
Several Lines.
lRREGULARITY is SEEN
IN FEW OTHER FIELDS
Increases in Electricity and Steel
Contrasted With Lag by
Motors.
BY THOMAS E. FLANAGAN,
Associated Press Financial Writer.

ny AhoHAS l.. fLANAOAN,
Associated Press Financial Writer
Business came down the summer
home stretch in a good mood this
week.
Reports from the Nations trade and
industrial centers indicated batter
than seasonal improvement in some
sectors. In others mild irregularity
and caution were the keynotes.
Increases in steel and electricity
production and car loadings contrast
ed with moderate decrease in motor
output. Retail trade received help
from more favorable weather. Whole
sale activity quickened. but experts
stressed that buying was mainly re.
f1ected restocking of depleted inven-
tories, rather than speculative de-
mand.
The few weeks which lead up to
Labor Day are normally an in-between
period for business. Usually July and
August are dull months. This year
activity in some lines surpassed ex-
pectatlons. On the other hand, as
the end of summer drew near. some
analysts felt that for business at large
the August statistical score, when
hnally compiled. would be less i'm
pressive than early estimates had indi-
Gated
The Department of Commerce. in its
weekly survey of business in 36 cities,
indicated that business generally was
optimistic over the autumn outlook.
Important indices lent strength to
the belief that the present recovery
movement is fairly deep rooted" the
department said.
Guide Posts to Trends.
Business men had the following
guide posts to trends: Employment
and pay rolls improved in some in
dustrial centers. The capital markets
developed additional signs of thawing
out. Federal relief and work projects
/ picked up momentum. Residential
building continued to swing along.
Experts who attempted to gauge the
fall and winter outlook dug under the
surface Of the weeks statistics. Here
Is what they found:
In the steel industry there was q
broadening demand from miscellane.
Gus consumers. Once more, it was
insisted in trade circles that any fur
ther improvement depended upon the
automobile industry. For the first
time in many weeks, it was noted that
some observers held out hopes of some
buying of equipment and rails by
railroads On this score it was en-
phasized that there would probably be
no important railroad buying until the
rail wage controversy was settled.
Iron Age reported that building
projects. only a small part of which
were private enterprises, continued to
furnish demand for structural steel.
A yardstick of the extent to which
hopes have been lifted In the steel
industry was the modest rise in prices
OF scrap Steel The increase recovered
approximately the loss Of a week ago
but at current prices the market for
scrap was still considerably under its
recent peak.
MOTOR Industry Lays.
The motor industry, which often
plays the role of wheel-horse for gen.
eral business, operated at a little
slower pace. This industry and others
which depend closely on public pur-
CHASING power, took some reinsurance
from Department of Commerce stats
tics issued during the week.
The figures showed that nav rolls
decreased less than the usual amount
IN July. 1t was also noted that the
seasonally adjusted index of labor in
come rose little, all major industrial
groups sharing the advance.
Although railroad carloadings picked
up little more than seasonallv. the
picture in this division still remained
oadly blurred. Prospects are that the
movement Of freight will increase sub.
stantially during coming weeks as the
usual fall upturn gets under vay
While this will increase revenues ever
sizable gains will not mean completely
normal conditions for many systems
Railroad executives once more com.
planned that profits were being i'm.
paired by higher operating costs.
Electric power production climbed 6
little to 2.l38,517,000 kilowatt hour,
in the week ended August 2l. Tn,
Edison Electric Institute reported tha
this was 10 per cent under the lik,
week year ago. The Association O
American Railroads reported carload
ings for the same week. at 5s7,sls
a little higher than the previous week
but 23l per cent under the like 1873
period.
Reporting that $50 900 900 has beer
spent to retool automobile plants TO
1889 model production, Wards sal,
assemblies totaled 18.700 units, com
pared with 23,s4o the previous weel
and $3.50 in the comparable weel
last year. The American Iron An,
Steel Institute estimated steel opera
tions at 42.8 per cent of capacity,
moderate gain over the previous week
but we'll under last years rate.