Word: indexers
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Suddenly, in the year's last quarter, the upbeat began. In October, for the first time in 1954, employment topped the 1953 figure. The industrial wage index not only snapped out of its decline, but rose to a new alltime high ($59.26 weekly). Then a great surge of Christmas business hit the retail stores. Morgan's big department store in Montreal had the best December in the company's log-year history; Vancouver stores estimated that their 1954 Christmas sales would be at least 10% above last year...
...Bureau of Labor Statistics cost-of-living index inched up one-tenth of 1% last month to 114.6 (1947-49=100), thus ending a slight down trend which has extended over the past three months. Reason: 1955's new auto models, which hit the market with slightly higher prices and lower trade-in allowances from dealers than on last year's cars. Thus the boost affected only those who bought a new car. For the rest of the U.S., living costs declined slightly...
...that new claims for unemployment compensation in the third week in December had fallen to 301,700, almost 11,000 below the week before. Last minute Christmas buying boosted department-store sales a full 3% ahead of the corresponding week in 1953. And the Federal Reserve Board industrial-production index for November rose to 129, (1947-49=100), showing an unusual upturn at a season when industrial production normally dips...
Average Y. Market. What did the new high in the average index mean? Said one Wall Streeter: "The Dow is back to 1929, but I don't know whether the market is." Some of the other indicators showed just what he meant. The Dow-Jones rail average, though at a high for the year (up 2.55 points last week to 132.27), was still almost 60 points below its 1929 peak; the utility average (up a fraction of a point to 60.75) was more than 80 points below its high. Among other standard Wall Street guides, there were similar discrepancies...
...further complicating factor in every index is the frequent stock splits, which distort the statistics. If a Dow-Jones stock is split three for one, for example, it is given a statistical weight greater than its former importance. Hence a stock like General Electric, which has been split twelve times since 1929, is relatively more important in the average than one such as General Foods or Woolworth which has had no splits...