THE ECONOMY: Pulse Beats

Boom notes of the week:

¶ The U.S.'s gross national product, total of all goods and services, reached a record annual rate of $372.4 billion for the second quarter, up $9.6 billion from the first quarter. Spending for personal consumption also rose, from $227.7 billion to $230.4 billion.

¶ Personal income for all Americans in June hit a new record, an annual rate of $286 billion, up $15 billion in a year.

¶ Employment in early July reached 63,120,000, a record for the month (but about 50,000 under the June figure).

¶ Commerce Department officials were reported ready to revamp their estimates of total 1953 construction from $33.5 billion to $34.5 billion.

The economy had a few weak spots as well. Some commodity prices were softening (see below), farm income was still down and used car sales continued in their slump. Steel demand was still ahead of production, but the gap was narrowing in some products. There was a potential danger signal in business inventories, which rose to $77.3 billion at the end of June, $4.8 billion higher than a year ago. But there was a balance wheel in the fact that sales were up $5.3 billion above last June. That left the ratio of sales to inventory unchanged.