Business: Current Situation: May 3, 1926

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The most noteworthy feature of the week was the New York Federal Reserve Bank's lowering of its rediscount rate from 4% to 3½%. Call money dropped to 3% (the lowest since March 20, 1925) on the Stock Exchange and to 2½% outside. Such easy money was one cause for the rise of stock prices. Another cause must have been the plentiful money available from the conservatism so noticeable in industrial enterprises. Bond prices have been mounting gradually since the recent stock break. One day last week $20,826,000 in domestic bonds were sold, a record, the previous being $17,432,000 on June 12, 1924.

Spring usually brings business failures, but the first quarter of this year brought scarcely any more than previous years.

Steel production will be reduced in the near future by all signs.

In general the nartional industry has kept at a steady gait and seemingly will continue so. The stock market fluctuations did not truly reflect its condition.