Bottom Lines Are Looking Up

The long dry spell for U.S. business appears to be coming to an end. A number of major companies last week reported healthy increases in profits for the first quarter compared with results for the same period last year. A star performer was General Motors, which earned $653 million as sales rose 14% from a year ago. Chrysler also did well, earning $172 million, an increase of 15% on sales of $3.1 billion from January through March. It was Chrysler's largest quarterly profit ever. Overall, though, the earnings picture in the first quarter was one of lights and shadows, of a recovery not quite fully developed. IBM's earnings rose 24%, to $976 million, but the world's largest computer maker did better than its smaller brothers. Control Data's profits fell 12.5%, Honeywell's were off 60%, and Texas Instruments' dropped to $7 million from $28 million. General Electric's profits rose 13% on a total sales gain of 1%, mainly due to cost cutting as well as improved sales in consumer products.

RCA's earnings, unusually high during the first quarter of 1982 because of a one-time sale of assets and tax benefits, were down 47% this year, but profits for the company's C.I.T. Financial and NBC subsidiaries moved ahead. Basic industries generally have yet to feel the recovery. Republic Steel lost $35 million in the first quarter, almost twice as much as last year. Armco lost $128 million. Dow Chemical's profits declined from $154 million last year to $69 million this year. Dow President Paul F. Oreffice explained that his industry "traditionally lags a general economic turnaround by a few months." The big domestic oil companies, beset by falling prices, should show a 20% profit drop on average.

The biggest celebrations after earnings reports were announced occurred on Wall Street. The bull market has pushed up trading volume and the level of broker commissions. Paine Webber's earnings rose 525%, to $23 million; E.F. Hutton's increased more than twelvefold; First Boston's jumped 81%. After more than two years of mostly terrible corporate profits, last week's earnings results signaled that the worst of the recession is over. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.