Evening star., 1938-06-05
BUSINESS HOLDS
SLUGGISH COURSE
IN HOLIDAY WEEK
Retail Trade Is Spotty.
Activity Light for
Wholesale Firms
INDUSTRY IRREGULAR,
INDEX AT 4-YEAR LOW
Steel and Motor Production Down,
While Power Output and
Freight Loadings Gain.
BY THOMAS z. FLANAGAN,
Associated Press Financial Writer.

BY THOMAS E. FLANAGAN,
Associated Press Financial Writer.
The Nations business was sluggish
in the week just ended.
Retail trade generally held steady,
some leading cities reporting improve
ment over the previous week. Whole
sale activity was light.
Industry was spotty, declines in steel
and motor output depressing the Asso-
ciated Press index of industrial activity
to 65.8, the lowest point in four years.
The previous week it stood at 668; a
year ago it was 1864. Electric power
| production and carloadings braced up.
Residential building continued to rise.
The Memorial Day holiday was re-
tarding factor, experts said.
Although trade experts said they
looked for the motor industry to re-
bound next week after the holiday let
down, the manner in which production
continued to trail far behind 1887
levels provoked sober thought.
Future Trend Uncertain.
How soon motor makers would feel
the urge to step on the output accele-
rator remained moot point. Some
light was thrown on the downturn by
statistics which showed that in 1887 a
substantial increase in repossessions of
financed sales brought the total to the
highest for any year since 1882.
Some motor men said that about 100
per cent of the repossessed automo-
biles had been finding their way into
the used-car market.
The American Machinist cited con-
tinued lag in demand for machine tools
from the motor industry and other
manufacturing sectors.
Detroit automobile factories. the re-
port said, were ordering some tools, but
no large purchases were in sight.
Toledo motor parts factories were
scheduled to slacken of shortly for
from one to three months,
Look to Washington.
Business. and financial experts be-
lieve the main stream Of influence re-
mains in Washington. And up to the
present. they said, the administrations
spending lending program has had
comparatively little discernible effect,
except to strengthen the demand for
high-priced bonds.
They noted brisk demand for the
S100,000,0 900 issue of United States
Steel Corp. bonds offered publicly this
week. This might open the way, some
thought, for an increased flow Of sorely
needed new capital into productive
| channels of industry.
Reports from the business front in
dicated that some progress has been
made in clearing shelves of excessive
industrial and retail inventories.
At the same time in many instances
stocks on hand still are bulky enough
to preclude hopes of early production
upswings.
Tangible evidence on the inventory
situation was afforded by a Dun a.
Bradstreet survey which covered more
than $4,000 companies. This showed
that at the top of the upswing in
1897 stocks of finished and raw ma
terials held by manufacturers and dis
tributors were near record figures.
| Steel Rate Lower.
In the week just ended the steel
industry worked at 26l per cent Of
capacity, compared with 20 the pre-
ceding week and TIA in the like 1887
week. This was disclosed by estimates
of the American Iron and Steel Insti-
tute.
Electricity output in the week ended
May % totaled l,973,27S,000 kilowatt
hours, the Edison Electric Institute
said. This was up slightly over the
preceding week, but down 10.6 per
cent from the corresponding week Q
year ago.
Automobile assembly lines turned
out 26,980 units in the week Just
ended, compared with 45,120 the
previous week and 104.136 in the like
week last year, Wards reported. Car
loadings, reported by the Association
of American Railroads at 562,061 In
the week ended May %, showed rise
of 3 per cent from the preceding week
but a decline of 39.5 per cent from
1887.
Outlook Unchanged.
1.-THE period marking the end Of
May and the beginning OF June
brought no decided change in the
retail trade picture throughout the
country" the Commerce Department
said in its survey of So cities.
These activities held about even
with the levels of recent weeks, al
though in a number of cities there
were some slight signs Of improvement
over the previous week. In this con-
nection it was noted that only seven
cities-New York, Baltimore, WASH
ington, Cincinnati. New Orleans.
Omaha and Norfolk-registered de-
creases from the previous week"
Demand for textiles, rayons, cotton
and metals was light. Woolen prices
softened slightly. The Eastern whole
sale cotton market was affected ad-
versely by fluctuations in raw cotton
In the South.
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