Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-02-25
War Conditions
Affect Spring
Trade Plans
Seasonal Recovery
Due in Few Weeks:
Copper Sales Soar
BY FRANK MacMILLEN,
Associated Press Business Writer.

Associated Press Business Writer.
NEW YORK, Feb. 24.-Wartime
conditions influenced business prep
arations this week for spring activity
along the home industrial fronts.
Some signs of at least seasonal
upturn in the next few weeks were
evident In trade reports. including
the heaviest demand for copper
since the September war buying,
tapering in steel curtailment and
boost in automobile output.
With nearly six months expe-
rience in war markets, factory man.
ayers were judged in better posi-
ton to plan ahead than they were
in the first excited phase of the
struggle.
Meanwhile. more than half of the
autumn upswing in major business
indices has been lost in the rather
sharp decline since New Years.
Industrial Exports Jump.
Emerging from the initial effects
Of the war, industrial leaders find
these trends:
o. A substantial rise in exports
of industrial goods to Europe and
Latin America in the first five
months of the war.
90. Development of lusty war
baby" industries in aircraft manu-
featuring, machine tools and ship
building.
90. British plans for sale of
American securities to obtain dollar
exchange for war supplies.
"a. Partial loss of foreign markets
for certain farm products, such as
apples and tobacco
50. Reluctance of manufacturers
to expand plants until capital mar
kets reopen on a larger scale for
new financing and the endurance of
the war can be sized up more
clearly.
Scrambled with the impending
presidential election in the United
States, the war trends have given
Wall Street analysts lot to ponder
over The net result. analysts say.
has been to cause mixture Of OPP
timism for future business improve
ment, and caution until both the war
and political prospects take on more
definite shapes.
Markets Stalemated.
The general tendency to wait and
see" has been apparent in a pro-
longed stalemate in the security
markets. Stocks in recent weeks
have drifted through one of the
quietest periods Wall Street has
known since the World War.
Big-scale buying of copper lately,
following the slack interval from
November through January. was
attributed chiefly to expanded ex-
port demand and wartime urge
to carry larger inventories than
usual.
Many commodity men counted
on spread of forward buying to
other markets in the spring, de-
spite the expansion Of stocks held
by manufacturers and dealers as
result of the tremendous orders
placed in the first weeks tf the
war.
Numerous plants still were at
work on orders taken last autumn,
keeping operations well above levels
justified by incoming orders. Tex.
tile mills. particularly, were re.
ported to be feeding off reserve
orders accumulated last autumn.
Auto Output Higher.
Outstanding among the past
weeks indications of a spring turn
for the better in business was an
unexpected jump in motor assem-
blies. Trade estimates placed out
put at 102,670 cars and trucks,
against 95o50 the previous week
and 1850 in the like 1899 period.
The increase followed what was
described as consistently good" re-
tail sales OF cars in recent weeks,
as result. Detroit estimates of Feb
ruary automobile production were
revised upward to 10000 units from
$4,000 previously The February,
1889 figure was 3l7,517.
A further leveling off in the de-
cline of steel production was FORE
cast for the coming week. The
new year fall in the operating rate
from about sc per cent of CAPACITY
In January to 671 has wiped ont
most of the September November
gain.
Spring expansion in motor in
dustrles and outdoor construction.
trade reports said, were expected
tq cushion the decline in steel, where
the autumn wave of war buying for
a while whipped up record-break-
ing tonnage output.
Dragged down mainly bv declines
IN steel and rail loadings, the Asso.
ciated Press index of industrial,
activity receded for the sixth
straight week. 1t now stands at
10l.6 per cent of the 1929-3O level
compared with a 10-year peak
around liz at the height of the
autumn advance. A year ago it
was 87.7.
Decline Moderates.
The rate of the decline has mod.
Grated perceptibly the last two
weeks. WV
, snow-closed highways in some
sections. rain elsewhere. jumbled
the retail trade picture. The blizzard
recently cut shopping as much as
10 per cent under 1889 figures in
some lines, trade observers reported.
on the whole, though, retail demand
for consumers goods was said to be
(see TRADE, Page Esq
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