Current Situation

The stock market continued upwards during the week, with a heavy volume of trading, although there were no signs from the industrial world of marked improvement for the immediate future. The oil situation looked better--with normalcy quite a way in the distance. The cotton shortage will probably curtail buying rather than enrich planter or spinner through high prices. The retail trade is too good to last, and is unusually dependent on the maintenance of very high industrial wages. The foreign situation grew more confused, accompanied by a sharp drop in sterling exchange. Only the building boom can be considered, from present prospects, as a real backlog to improved conditions in industry and trade, and even there the speculative builder must "watch his step" as never before.