Evening star., 1915-11-21
BIG BUYING POWER
IN STOCK MARKET
Leaders Maintain Price Level
Despite Great Flood OF
Selling Orders.
PROSPERITY OF AMERICA
IN SPITE OF THE WAR
Prediction Made That This Country
Is on Verge Of Great
Expansion.

actions on the stock exchange mann
tain their million -shares-a-day pace,
and while liquidation has been very
heavy there has been no marked de-
probation in any of the market lead
ers. On the other hand, the price level
has maintained a firm undertone not
only in the rails, but also in the war
stocks. The course of the market In
recent weeks gives every evidence OF
heavy and concerted buying by large
and strong financial interests. Enor-
nous earnings of some of the leading
Industrial concerns. the stock Of which
is represented on the exchange, has
made the purchase Of these shares very
desirable from an investment as well
as a speculative standpoint.
For example, stock like the Western
Union, which pays regular dividend
Of per cent, yields an income basis or
per cent at current prices. Those VINO
purchased the stock two months ago at
rs, however, may now turn it over at
81 or more, an additional profit of II
points 1t is arguments of this sort
that make these dividend industrlais
Irresistible to those who have surplus
funds awaiting profitable employment
It is conceded that the stock market
is now in a very strong technical posi-
ton as a result of ten days or more OF
liquidation through which it has
passed, and violent reactions are now
hardly possible through flooding the
over, traders have been taught by two
recent reactions in the highly specula-
tive war order stocks that 1t Is not
safe to buy into companies whose
shares have had tremendous advances
based entirely upon unofficial reports
of huge profits to be made out OF NUM-
tions. Some of these issues may be
worth their present prices, and more,
but until the mystery that mas sur
rounded their changed positions has
been cleared by earnings statements
buyers are likely to favor the stand
ard copper and steel stocks and those
of the war order companies which
have issued official reports.
Still Higher Values Predicted.
Moreover, New York financial lead
ers are predicting still higher values
for standard securities. Though it is to
be assumed that reactions are almost
certain in all securities. the standard
railroad and Industrial stocks on the
basis of actual earnings and mini
mum dividends are becoming safer
and more satisfactory form of invest
ment for those who apply the doctrine
of safety first" in choosing their Sc
curities.
Comparison of market quotations fur
ther substantiates the position of those
who look for the rising level of stock
prices. 1t is pointed out, for example.
that the closing prices of twenty active
railroad stocks on Saturday of last
week, at an average of 1861 was near
ly twenty points above those of the
low price Of December last. The av-
erage price on December "a, 1914, was
only S7h. The twelve Statistical in
dustrial stocks moved up from 71h to
l21A an increase of hfty-one points, in
the period from July of last year to the
present time. From July of this year
to the closing last Saturday, according
to the accurate records of the journal
of Commerce. ,the railroad shares have
advanced eighteen points from SSss to-
1868, and the industrials thirty-seven
points from s7A to 121 q. The in
creases in these stocks is of course
based upon the probability of the main
tenance of dividends at current rates.
and in some instances of the payment
of cumulative dividends that have long
been deferred.
II. as most conservative business men
believe, the present outlook for pros
perity in the United States is not be-
cause of the war in Europe, but in
spite of it, and that the furnishing OF
war goods is on much smaller basis
than is popularity believed, there is IN
deed ample reason for the added pub
lie interest in our great industrial es-
Establishments. Take. for example. the
steel trade. The latest monthly report
of the United States Steel Corporation
showed the remarkable increase of
$4,000 tons in the untitled orders, an
increase all the more phenomenal when
we consider that in previous months
the output of the steel mills has been
greater than ever before. Within less
than a years time the worst depression
in the steel trade in a generation has
yielded place to the biggest demand
which this industry has ever been
called upon to fill. 1t is perhaps the
most remarkable evolution in the his
tory of the steel trade. and it is no
wonder that many even of those who
were most depressed by the low ebb to
which business in this country had fall
en- should be harboring now expecta-
tions of an expansion in trade within
the United States such as the country
has never before seen.
Money and Investments.
The announcement made simultane-
l..