ent001319-080

0 i 3 N : a bo ?√ßTOUSINESS- It's a John Bull Market^Slue Chips the British Hold Who were the biggest gainers in 1958's bull market? One of them, it now turns out, was the British Treasury. That surprising fact became clear last week when The Times of London revealed that the Treasury owns well over $800 million worth of stock in U.S. companies. Included in the roster of blue chips: 2.6 million shares of General Motors worth $124.8 million, 1.4 million shares of Standard Oil of New Jersey ($78 million), and 496,000 shares of Monsanto Chemical ($19 million). The government originally acquired the dollar stocks in 1941, when, under emergency wartime legislation, it took over all North American holdings of British individuals, paying for them in sterling. Since then the shares have more than quadrupled in value. Though the Treasury maintains an attitude of strict secrecy about its holdings, American businessmen need not expect any British Treasury officials will be sitting on their boards of directors. The best guess is that its portfolio is handled by two or three U.S. banking institutions which, as a matter of policy, do not vote the shares. CHAMPAGNE TO FIT THE MOOD m <D ?╟≤H U o m i o In a snowstorm of confetti and paper streamers, the farewells to the year 1958 would be said?╟÷and with no regrets. For on this New Year's Eve, the nation was ringing out a year of recession, and officially welcoming a year that promised better business. As befitted this happy occasion, the better-known watering spots from Broadway to Vegas were booked so full there was hardly room for an extra noisemaker. "We're always sold out New Year's Eve," said a spokesman for New York's Copa- rthough hurt the qli&t !sked at all. In Las Vegas the Sands Hotel reported it had turned down * l2,56o requests for New Year's Eve reservations. Advance bookings at the Coconut Grove in Los Angeles ran .cent ahead of a year ago, About the only sign that Hie clubs and their customers remembered the recent recession: Prices were, generally at last year's level. (Examples: .$30 a person in the Empire Room at New York's Waldorf- Astoria, $37.50 at the Coconut Grove, $22 at the Pump Room in Chicago's Ambassador Hotel.) Customers were shopping around more by phone this year before putting in their bids for that table for six celebrants. Brisk Trade: If the economy itself couldn't tootle out the old year with complete abandon, it nevertheless was producing quite a blast. The nation's investors enjoyed one of their merriest Christmases ever as the stocks on the New York Stock Exchange gained $2.8 billion in value during a brisk Christmas Eve trading session. Auto production during Christmas week rose to 120,953 units, a fat 30.9 per cent above a year ago. What about the new year? While there would be a few trouble spots, some industries could look forward to setting new highs in 1959. And when all the returns were in, the figures would make good reading for businessmen. Steel output, for instance, should range between 105 million and 110 million tons (vs. 85 million in 1958 and the record 117 million tons in 1955), said U.S. Steel Corp.'s economist Bradford B. Smith. Automobiles were selling well, and manufacturing executives in Detroit were privately revising upward their predictions for a 5.5 million unit sales year, "otal spending on autos and parts, added rord economist George P. Hitchings, mould come close to 1957's $17.1 billion a rate of $13.4 billion during the first nine months of 1958. The brighter auto outlook was one reason U.S. Rubber chairman H.E. Humphreys Jr. expected sales in his industry to reach a record $6 billion or 'Happy New ?fe?½gl' more. (The 1958 total: $5.5 billion.) With the Defense Department pouring more money into electronics, that industry counted on taking in $7.9 billion, 14 per cent more than in 1958 and a new high. "The greater opportunities for [industrial] growth exist in the areas where electronics is most active," noted Radio Corp. of America chairman David Sarnoff matter-of-factly. The best business ever was also the prospect for the gas industry ($4.5 billion in sales in 1958) and for the glass-container industry (20 billion units shipped). While appliance manufacturers weren't talking about any new records, they were confident that the three-year sales slide was at last over, expected to boost volume some 4 per cent. Chemical companies thought sales might top 1958's $24.4 billion by 5 per cent. There were still some economic problems as the nation entered the new year, of course?╟÷notably inflation and unemployment. But compared with the heeby-jeebies of a year ago, they seemed little more serious than a case of morning-after queasiness. OIL: More?╟÷Or Less? To the U.S. oil companies which pump some 2.5 million barrels a day from the rich oil pools of Venezuela, good public relations have been just as essential as good drilling bits. Yanqui oilmen have distributed richly colored brochures boosting everything from the delights of Venezuelan vacation resorts to the get-up-and- go of the citizens, and have assiduously avoided any acts that might (1) involve them in heated politics or (2) indi^ cate any compromise oji.yr