The Market

On the New York Stock Exchange one day last week 19 steel stocks made new Recovery highs. U. S. Steel went to $59.75 per share, up $7.75 for the week; Bethlehem to $57.50, up $3.13; Ludlum to $32.50, up $3.50; Colorado Fuel & Iron preferred to $45.87, up $3. The industry was operating at only 52% of capacity, lower than a year ago. What encouraged speculators was the fact that in the face of a sharp dip in automobile production, operations had actually risen five points since the year end. U. S. steel shipments for January showed an unexpected increase of nearly 60,000 tons over the previous month. The price of scrap, steel's principal raw material, was still rising. Better demand for structural steel was expected, since building contracts were holding 60% above the 1920-30 average and more than 100% above a year ago. More important, railroads, already in the market for rails and rolling stock, were counted on for the biggest steel orders in years.

Other market news of the week: P:Booming along in a series of 2,500,000-share days in the eleventh month of almost uninterrupted advance, the market last week was 60% above last March, 270% above its July 1932 low. P:Day the Supreme Court handed down the long-awaited TVA decision, traders swamped the market with buying orders for utility stocks as soon as they learned by news tickers that Chief Justice Hughes had started reading the opinion, dumped them even faster when they realized its meaning (see p. 16). In the ensuing confusion, trading halted temporarily in a number of issues, and the session ran to nearly 5,000,000 shares. P:Copper stocks climbed to new highs for the Roosevelt bull market when copper was upped 1/4-c-per Ib. to 9 1/2-c- by Phelps Dodge Corp. Anaconda Copper followed suit but Kennecott, presumably skeptical of the possibilities of maintaining a higher price with present demands, continued selling at the old level. P: Discounting fat Government orders for the next year, airplane stocks soared on the passing by the House of the record peacetime Army Appropriations Bill (see p. 16).

P:Out of step with the Wall Street march was Investment Counselor W. H. Roystone, who declared: ''There is no basis at the present time for hedging against inflation. Inflation, when it comes, will start with the Congress of 1937. In fact, the situation now is such as to justify the sale of stocks rather than their purchase. Every indication points to a much lower market this summer. Business improvement has not carried through." Predicting an unprecedented boom from 1937 to 1939, then a terrific crash, followed by prolonged depression, he advised Republicans that it "would be very unwise to try for office during the next eight years, because if they should be in power from 1940 to 1944, they will ever after be known as the Depression Party."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.