Quickening Pulse

All through the economy, the business pulse was quickening. In January, the auto industry turned out 658,700 cars, a record for the month, and a rate of 8,000,000 a year. (The only better months in history were June, August and October of 1950.) The most spectacular performance was turned in by Chrysler. Fighting to regain its lost markets, it came within a half of 1% of President Lester Lum ("Tex") Colbert's goal by boosting its production from 13% of the industry's total to 19.5%. Plymouth bumped G.M.'s Buick from third place in the output race, with 64,000 cars produced; Chrysler (including the new Imperial) passed Cadillac, with 17,470 cars v. 14,135, but G.M.'s Chevrolet clinched the No. 1 spot for the month with production of 154,517 cars v. Ford's 143,761. And the cars were selling: Ford reported its best January sales ever.

Other industries were keeping up with the fast auto pace. Awards of construction contracts in 37 states for the first three weeks of January, reported the F. W. Dodge Corp., hit $1 billion, up 32% from the same 1954 period. Largely because of the boom in autos and construction, steel output was scheduled at 85.4% of capacity, best since 1953, and demand was so great that a mild grey market developed for some steel products. In the lead and zinc markets, buying was heavy as manufacturers hedged against price rises that might follow the recent boost in copper.

As a measure of overall industrial activity, electric-power output for the latest week topped 10 billion kilowatt-hours for the first time in history, the third successive weekly record and a full 13% above the same week in 1954.

The Commerce Department reported that manufacturers' new orders rose $800 million, to $24.7 billion in December, a thumping $3.3 billion above the year-ago figures. And helped by a $453 million rise in consumer installment credit, to a record $22.5 billion, the goods were moving off retailers' shelves. In January, eight of the ten top New York department stores reported "extraordinary" sales, up an average 7.5% from last year.

Wall Streeters took note of all the favorable developments. By week's end, on rising volume, they pushed the Dow-Jones industrial average up another five points to 409.76, a new bull-market high.

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