Better Position

The U.S. economy is so huge that millions of statistics are needed to tell where it is going. Last week--as almost every week--it was possible to find facts and figures that indicated it was going both down and up, depending on where one looked.

Lagging appliance sales forced General Motors' Frigidaire division to furlough 1,700 men, and G.M.'s auto-assembly lines slowed down, as Buick produced 13,000 fewer cars in January than it did in the same month last year. But for those who watched the overall course of the U.S. auto market, there were plenty of other statistics last week to prove that consumers were still buying heavily.* Despite the G.M. reduction, total U.S. auto production was 5% higher in January than in 1956. Chrysler jumped 23%. Ford 25%. And with the best January sales record in its history, Ford backed its confidence by announcing a record $710 million expansion for the rest of 1957

In steel, the same apparently conflicting statistics were evident. Steel scrap prices tumbled $8 to $12 a ton, the sharpest drop in years, and production last week in the nation's mills slipped slightly to 97.1% of capacity. Nevertheless, the industry's spokesmen stood firm on their previous estimates that 1957 will be a good year. Said Bethlehem Steel's Chairman Eugene G. Grace: "The industry is in a better position than at any time in its history. I don't think there's a person in the steel industry who doesn't think operations will be at capacity for the first six months of the year.'' Bethlehem Steel reported a 7% earnings rise to $61.7 million in the fourth quarter of 1956, making it the best in its history, and voted a quarterly dividend of 60-c- a share on its recently split 4-1 common stock, equivalent to $2.40 a share on the old stock, or 10-c- less than last year. At year's end the company backlog stood at $1.3 billion (v. $862 million the year before), of which $580 million was in shipbuilding orders alone. Bethlehem's shipbuilding division, said Chairman Grace, "has finally come to life."

Grace's cheery view was echoed by U.S. Steel's Chairman Roger M. Blough. Said the No. 1 U.S. steelmaster: the first-quarter steel outlook was "excellent" and the second quarter should be "a very good period." U.S. Steel's directors underscored their confidence by hiking the quarterly dividend from 65-c- to 75-c- a share.

*Including Saudi Arabia's visiting King Saud, who ordered 60 Cadillacs from G.M. Reported price: $1,000,000.

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