Convalescent?

Wall Street's chronic invalid, the stock market, was sitting up in bed again. The market, which had been edging up, seemed encouraged by the President's inaugural speech (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS). At week's end, the Dow-Jones industrial average had recovered more than half of its 19-point drop following the November election. At 181.54, the industrial average was only 8.65 points short of its pre-election high mark. Even the airline stocks, which had been in the worst doldrums of all, perked up at news of dwindling deficits; their gains outran the market as a whole.

Actually, as The Exchange magazine pointed out, the post-election drop had looked worse than it was. Only 2.8% of the shares on the Exchange had been sold in the 50 sessions after Nov. 2. The drop, apparently, had been caused not by heavy selling but by the "thin market," partly due to high margin requirements.

The market for new securities also looked better than at any time in months. In two days last week, underwriters floated $30 million worth of new common and preferred stocks in five issues. The biggest: $20.4 million worth of Bethlehem Steel common, $8.1 million worth of Philadelphia's prosperous, long closely held Rohm & Haas 'chemical works.* Wall Streeters, who had long been telling one another that risk capital was all but dead, thought that they felt a stronger pulse.

*The stock sold was a 25% German-held interest confiscated by the U.S. during the war.

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