Going Up

The booming construction industry, one of the biggest props under the economy, last week showed new signs of strength.

The U.S. Department of Commerce reported that new construction in June rose to $3.3 billion, with both private and public building at peak levels. This brought the total for the first six months to a record $16.6 billion, more than $300 million above 1953's previous alltime high.

From other sections of the economy came more good news: EURJ Unemployment rose only 42,000 to 3,347,000 between May and June, far less than the normal 375,000 increase expected because of school graduations and vacation layoffs. Employment was up by 979,000, most of it on farms, but enough (142.000) was in factories to halt the down trend in non-farm employment.

tj The stock market rose for the fourth straight week. The Dow-Jones industrial average broke through to a bull-market high of 341.25, nearly four points better than the week before.

The cotton market moved up on crop estimates by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Cotton futures spurted as much as $1 a bale on news that 1954's cotton plantings, which had been cut 21% under 1953's. largely as a result of Government controls, would produce only 12 million bales v. 16.5 million last year. But corn production, despite a 17.4% cut in acreage, was estimated at 3.3 billion bu., about 135 million more than last year's crop and nearly 255 million higher than the ten-year average.

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