EARNINGS: Oils Up, Steels Down

Big U.S. corporations are still doing fine. But the profit line chalked out for them by taxes, price ceilings and increased production costs has taken a downward dip for many. The National City Bank's profit figures on 300 leading corporations, for the first nine months of 1944, showed: a 6% increase in profits, after taxes, over the similar 1943 period, with combined sales up 11%. Of the 300 companies, 140 reported higher profits this year, while 160 were down.

But there were at least two notable deviations from the norm. The 13 petroleum companies increased both sales and earnings by...

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