STATE OF BUSINESS: The Boom & Tight Money

¶ With steel operating at 95% of capacity last week and pouring a near-record 2,707,000 tons, automakers scheduled their highest production in three years.

¶ Railroad carloadings jumped 14,260 in a week to 483,012 cars, some 3% better than a year ago.

¶ Department store sales were 9% over the corresponding week last year.

¶ Following settlement of the steel strike (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS), the stock market jumped six points to 685.47 on the Dow-Jones industrial average, eased back at week's end to 675.73.

The week's biggest worry was over tight money; interest rates were edging up all along the line. Led by C.I.T., the big finance companies hiked their rates on commercial borrowing; New York banks boosted the rate they charge on broker-dealer stock market loans by ½% to 5½%. The U.S. Treasury, in its weekly rollover of $2 billion in short-term debt, had to pay a record 5.099% on one 182-day offering. Another dampening effect was the prospect of an increase in the 4% discount rate that the Federal Reserve charges member banks.