Best of the Year

For automakers, still trying to gauge the market for 1959 models, the news last week was the best of the year. During the last ten days of November, dealers sold an average 18,400 cars a day, the fastest-selling pace of '58. This was 13.7% over the midmonth and some 57% over the first ten days. For December as a whole sales are forecast at 450,000, up from 292,000 in October and an estimated 368,000 in November.

Encouraged by the news from the sales floors, automakers last week concentrated on stepping up production. Though Chrysler Corp. suffered a 14% drop in output because of labor troubles. General Motors scheduled a rise of 25%, Ford 21%. Not until dealers have all the cars they want, sometime in January, will automakers know whether the present spurt is temporary or the signal of a good year ahead. Only then will the industry know whether auto sales can avoid the sharp dip of last January, when the auto recession really bit in.

For other businessmen the sales news last week was also good. The Commerce Department disclosed that independent wholesalers' sales hit $11.2 billion in October, up from $10.3 billion in September. It was the second consecutive month in which wholesalers surpassed 1957 sales. Retailing news was just as good. In October retailers racked up $17 billion, back all the way to pre-recession records of mid-1957.

The rising sales have checked the drastic cutting of inventories, one of the heaviest pressures on the economy. Manufacturers' inventories of finished goods in October held to the same $48.9 billion level as September, the first month since August 1957 that manufacturers did not cut stocks. Instead of living off their stocks, as they had been for a year, businessmen were stepping up their buying again. One immediate result was a lessening of unemployment. The Labor Department reported that employment picked up in most of the nation's major industrial centers last month. Six areas were removed from the substantial unemployment list (Indianapolis, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Fort Worth, Dayton, Hamilton-Middletown. Ohio, and Columbus, Ga.), leaving 83, lowest since last March.

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