OCR Text |
Show Business Conditions in the 12 Federal Reserve District Records of business activity in the Twelfth Federal Reserve District showed little fundamental change during April. Industrial production produc-tion in the aggregate was practically unchanged from March, some industries in-dustries failing to show the expansion ex-pansion customary in April and others oth-ers improving more than seasonally. Trade indicators offered a rather mixed picture during April but, on the whole, showed some improvement improve-ment from the low levels of other recent months. Markets from m :sl farm products were dull and prices were at low levels. Beneficial rains were favorable for growing conditions, condi-tions, however, and from a production produc-tion standpoint the agricultural outlook out-look improved. Wholesale commodity com-modity prices averaged slightly lower low-er than in March. There were no important changes in the credit situation. Climatic conditions point toward satisfactory yields of most crops In 1930, although light rainfall in recent re-cent years has resulted in a noticeable notice-able lack of sub-soil moisture in some of this District's important agricultural areas. Condition reports re-ports indicate that deciduous fruit crops will be larger this year than in 1929 but smaller than in 1928. This year's moderate sized crop of citrus fruits are being marketed satisfactorily. sat-isfactorily. Declining prices foi lambs and wool have had an adverse ad-verse effect on the position of the sheep raising industry, while prices pric-es for cattle, although somewhat lower than a year ago, have been maintained at relatively high levels lev-els and cattle markets continue relatively rel-atively stronger than other livestock live-stock markets. Industrial output during April remained re-mained at the low level of March and was well below the rate of activity ac-tivity in April, 1928 or 1929. Lumber Lum-ber production increased seasonally and the output of copper rose slight ly from the extremely low rate of production in March. Production of petroleum in California declined by a small amount for the whole of April, but showed a tendency to increase in-crease toward the end of the month. The building and construction industry in-dustry was slightly less active than in March whereas it usually expands ex-pands markedly during April. Largely in response to this year's late Easter, retail trade showed an increase over April, 1929. Sales cf reporting stores during March and April, 1930, were one per cent less than in March and April, 1929. Wholesale trade improved somewhat some-what improved as compared with 1 recent months was still well below the levels of last year. Most other lines of trade were less active than in the corresponding month of last year. Ree versing the temporary upward movement of late March and early April, wholesale commodity prices moved downward after the middle of April and for the month as a whole averaged slightly below, the level of March. There were no basic changes in the credit situation between mid-April mid-April and mid-May. Borrowings of city member banks at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, already al-ready small in volume, declined further fur-ther during the first half of May, although discounts for country mem ber banks continued about the same in volume as during recent months. Reports of small declines In average aver-age interest rates charged customers by banks in this District continued the down trend of interest rates acted since late in 1927. |