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Beginning with this issue, James Millen looks at individual company and industrial sector performances. Here, he reports on the encouraging progress of a sector which forms the bedrock of manufacturing achievement — machine tools.

The Stock Market suffered a good deal from nervousness at the fag‐end of January — depressed by the 70 points drop in the Dow Jones Index since the year‐end and the prospects of labour problems with the power workers and tanker drivers.

With Britain's economic prospects coming under the closest scrutiy in the post‐Budget period, many professional commentators decided they were none to happy with the Chancellor's manipulations of the country's financial affairs. They said so with sufficient emphasis to depress confidence in those areas that matter most.

The extent of the ‘boom’ on the Stock Market — fuelled by confidence in the improvement in the rate of inflation figures and a strengthening pound — in the five weeks to August 11 came as a surprise to many. Despite the widespread gains in most sectors, the prospect of a sustained drive forward into new high‐ground from the FT 30‐Share Index was considered unlikely — and certainly the forward momentum was substantially checked by the announcement of the disappointing balance of payment figures for July.

As the leaves began to fall with the advent of October, so did the hopes and aspirations of many investors who, two short weeks before, had been encouraged into supposing that with the FT 30‐Share Index at its 1978 peak of 535.5 the sky was the limit.

Quite a few of those who followed the traditional advice to ‘sell in May and go away’ this year will have had occasion to question the wisdom of long‐standig aphorisms as, in late July, they duly took note of the prices of their former holdings.

At the half‐way stage for the year it was difficult not to be concerned about the prospects for the economy and the stock market.

Despite the many uncertainties overhanging the Stock Market in recent months, the overall situation for shares improved steadily through the Spring so that as the clouds passed by and the sun shone once again it was noticeable that many more individual sectors were showing gains for 1978.

Reports on the status of electronic data interchange (EDI) usage by motor carrier firms in 1994. The same methodology was employed as in a similar study conducted in 1991, thereby permitting a comparison of practice between these two time periods. The results indicate that a number of changes have occurred between 1991 and 1994. For example, as carriers have become more experienced with EDI, their EDI services offerings have become a larger percentage of their freight revenues. New problems have arisen (e.g. organizational barriers) as carriers integrate EDI more completely. On the other hand, the results also indicate where change has not occurred. Technical standards remain a “non issue” for carriers, yet finding relevant software remains an issue. Examines these and other findings and discusses their implications.

Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Tenn. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.