Second Wind?

There were some encouraging signs for U.S. business last week.

The stock market gained for the third consecutive week. The Dow-Jones industrial average rose 2.84 points, to 170.92, more than nine points above its mid-June low.

The construction industry was coming back to life. In June, the Department of Commerce reported, total new construction topped the June 1948 figure by $294,000,000; for the first half of 1949, it stood at $8,453,000,00, an alltime record.

Two prime commodities, copper and lead, which had taken a severe price shellacking as manufacturers lived off their inventories, made a comeback. Last week, as manufacturers began buying again, the price of both copper and lead rose 1-c- a lb. Nobody wanted to see them reach their recent inflated levels, but it was a healthy fact that the buyers' strike had stopped.

Observed Manhattan's National City Bank: "The speed with which adjustments are moving may lead to a demonstration, earlier than the pessimists now expect, of the recuperative powers that rest in business itself."

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