New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-12-24
MARKET NEWS
| AND COMMENT
Railroads Higher in Late
Trading, and Close at
or Near Best.
COPPER STOCKS UP
EARLY IN THE DAY
Southern Pacific Earnings STIR
Interest in Carriers--N. Y.
Central Active.

Railroad stocks toward the close be-
came the centre OF trading interest,"
rising vigorously until leading issues
ended with gains Of point or more
| In the noon hour, after fairly active
buying Of New York Central and re-
markable earnings statement from
Southern Pacific, there was lltte
movement in the railroads. but this
lad not been carried far. Earlier IN
the session the copper stocks had con-
tinued the improvement Of the day
before. with rises that in many IN
stances brought them above Wednes-
davis best Dealings were around oVo'-
900 shares. and bonds were traded IN
70 a total of more than 100000 az
firm prices.
Yesterdays late rise in the carrier;
resembled too many similar upturns IN
the last year to cause much excite
ment among traders. As the improyT-
ing volume Of traffic has added 10 rail-
road earnings there has, however come
greater confidence in the prospects OF
the transportation industry. southern
Pacifc's earnings for November were
Of course, exceptional, but from all
over the country are coming better &C
counts of the railroads, and business
of domestic origin, arising from the
recent trade revival is doing its part
with export freight and grain. Inc
I Southern Pacifc's increase Of S3,ooU'OoV
in gross and nearly $2,OOO,OOO IN net
/ is in comparison with small earnings
in 1914, but when years preceding are
taken into account the showing IS sui
notable.
In the last hour the stock rose over
uoint. New York Central was in de-
mand from the outset, early crossing
its previous high of the year, and
closed at above 107, up more than
point. Baltimore and Ohio, Atchlson,
Canadian Pacific, Norfolk and Western
Reading and Union Pacific all i'm
proved and closed at or near their
best.
Some of the chemical stocks adj
vanced in the late upturn, and Bald
win Locomotive made some gain. Gen
orally, though, the war contract issues
were quiet. For the time, at least, en-
thusiasm has evaporated from war or
ders as q bull argument on industrlals.
Talk of mergers also fails 10 stimulate.
The new control expected for General
Motors resulted in further loss of 81
points in that stock yesterday. The
Cambria Steel combination, now that
its purposes are becoming better
known, no longer serves as an excuse
for indiscriminate purchasing OF the
smaller steel makers.
Though copper stocks were less
prominent, as the day went on, II was
through no lack of good news from the
market for the metal. The price in
London advanced again, and here sales
were reported at 21A cents pound.
Talk of coming scarcity for the metal
persisted in spite of the known large
production.
Late in the day there was some
scarcity Of call money that sent rates
Up again to Wednesdays high rate of
pa per cent. as some institutions
called in their loans to prepare for
nd-of-the-year statements. No i'm
portant advance is looked for, though
for a while it was said that prevailing
case in call money might be inter
rupted Little was done in time &C
commodatiCn and rates were steady.
Sterling failed TO reach the high
prices of Wednesday and ended with
demand a little lower at 4.7234 in the
pound. The Bank of England reported
year-end increase in circulation,
loans and deposits and, though there
was a S4,000,O00 gain in gold, the re
serve proportion fell more than q Of
l per cent.