The Washington times., 1912-01-21
ny JOHN GRANT DATER.
svecaal Financial Repres sentative the Munsey

institutions Ia, of course. traceable d.
rcctly to the large Accommodations and
ease Of money. ani 1t IL confidently be-
lieved that this must communicate 10
the individual investor In time.
Tobacco and Lehigh Valley.
Probably the most discussed topic of
the week was the tremendous advances
In the new tobacco securities. such as
sIh points In Liggett e. Myers, COM
mon, and 15h In p. Lorillard, common
The preferred stocks of the two COM
panies gained Ave to six points. and
the and per cent bonds Improved q
couple OF points or 90. 1t IL an inter-
esting commentary. these advances. on
the sum Of all the parts OF the trust are
II. securities q the trust Ssfore e. dis 900
luton. put one peculiar feature Of the
Concerns to which the trust Transferred nvT
certain business. What their earning
capacity H. no one knows except. per-
haps, certain Of the insiders. The in-
tnat the earnings viii be large. and that
IL clearly enough Indicated by the price
Of the new securities. but there 10 no
certainty as to what the earnings will
be, and this makes the movement the
Lehish Valley furnished a topic, Sec
ond only In interest to the advance In
the new tobacco shares, and at the out
set of the week. there was much nerv-
, BUSINESS on the part Of the short interest
over the possibilities of squeeze" or
q corner. Nothing OF the kind developed,
but the shorts were on tenter hooks
throughout the entire interval. Thsy
found the stock very difficult to bor-
row and, in fact, at one time 1t loaned
at u per cent premium for use, while
just before the dividend and rights which
were valued at 1914 <ome-ofr on Friday,
upward Of 500 shares were bought
was out Of the way the entire Street
breathed easier and. perhaps. 1t was
some of this feeling Of relief that found
expression in Fridays upoidding OF
Reading. Also. no coubt, the nervous
ness engendered by the Lehigh situa-
ton played an important part In fore
Ing short-covering IN Reading.
Foreign Trade Expansion.
In the way of general news the most
important feature of Wall Streets bust
ness week was the publication Of the
foreign trade statement for December,
showing exports. last month, to have
reached the value of 1924. I53. 431. and I'M
ports 3l40.G44,543. The exports were the
second largest for any single month in
the country's history, being exceeded
only In December, 1910, when The value
reached s229 O02. GS3. The imports were
the largest of any month since Novem-
Der. 1909. For the calendar year exports
have reached the enormous total of
s.. c9an, 37S,l4l, and Imports $l.532, 93l 1861,
an excess of exports and foreign
merchandise credit balance OF xs39, AL. $50.
There is no question that the huge
figures as to the country's International
trade proved q great surprise to Wall
Street, which does not seem to have
any actual appreciation of the TACT that
the wheels of commerce have rot
stopped, for all that the pubic shows
no inclination for speculative stock op-
erations. AS a matter Of fact. how
ever, 1t Is In the department of foreign
trade that industry mas shown the best
results, and 1t Is probably true. also.
that the volume OF merchandise ship
ments has been stimulated to some eN-
tent by low prices placed on articles OF
domestic manufacture In order to eff
feet sales abroad. In other departments
of commerce advices were substantially
unchanged. the best reports OF all COM
Ing from the iron ana steel industry, In