The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-08-27
FINANCIAL NEWS
AND COMMENT
Profit Taking-Activc Buying
of Stocks That Have Jagged
Behind for Weeks.
INTEREST NOW COPPER

The stock market was d2voted pretty,
generally to profit taking yesterday.
with new speculative buying active In
quarters of the list like the coppers and
other stocks which have Jagged behind
In the past few weeks. Prices behaved
sign Of pronounced weakness. There
was again a bulge at the start, but this
was not so violent as that on the preced-
ing day. Thereafter prices mostly moved
within "a narrow range. closing somewhat
irregularly, but with net gains the rule.
Ste-l common. in which the realizing was
as heavy as anywhere else. closed y Of l
per cent. up. Total dealings were de-
cidedly smaller. and speculation as n
whole showed II tendency to quiet down.
Sentiment was encouraged by new de-
vclopmen;s in the political situation. The
news OF the conference etwee Sec
rotary of state Lansing and the Ger
man Ambassador, where II was made
known that further assurances were
given that the German Government in
tended TO respect the rights Of neutrals.
confirmed the earlier impressions OF the
Street. I. was not surprising, there
fore, that after the enthusiastic rise Of
the past fcw days there should be no
further reflection Of II in stock prices.
Moreover. in the minds of some people
in the financial district. there IL still
some uncertainty as to whether the
questions raised by Germany's subma-
rine policy may yet be considered as
entirely disposed Of.
But there is no need to suppose that
the relative quietness OF the stock mar
ket was caused by anything else han
the natural process of digestion. fol-
lowing the violent gymnastics Of the
past week. Speculative sentiment. which
was so depressed at the close OF last
week. rushed to the other extreme this
week. and undoubtedly the speculative
position has suffered in consequence.
Tremendous profits in a very short
space of time were made by spectators
who had the courage to buy at the bot
tom. This profit taking. not noticeable
in Tuesdays and Wednesdays excited
markets. revealed itself plainly yester-
day. II is worthy Of note that the new
element Of dulness has had the. rather
curious eject upon sentiment among the
traders of inducing pess!mism appar
entity on the ground that the market has
failed to develop the strength to push
prices through the last top. But opin-
ions of this sort are generally influenced
" NAAN ~ ~ Wv tNfN w.
Tn y would be Immediately abandoned
with a development of activity on the
buying side.
The sudden switch OF speculative inter.
est to the coppers and traction shares
while other quarters of the market were
under the influence of profit taking has
been n not familiar phenomenon in the
recent past. But the present movcmen,
in the coppers appears to have some
thing more behind II han the mere
activities Of spectators of the oppor'
tunist sort. II comedies with pronounced
strength in the London metal marke,
jump Of two cents a pound In the sellint
price Of copper in the local market
Among the Specialties Tennessee Cop
per was the sensation of the day. Will
a jump of more than IL points. Basi!
for the movement appears to be thu
making Of a highly profitable contrac
for the sale Of acid products.
Another bad break in sterling 'ex
change forced rates down to a new
low mark. The weakness here is obvi
ously due to the delay in the devisinI
OF a scheme to establish British credit!
here, although speculative activities oi
doubtedly playing their part. Opera
ions OF this kind are encouraged by tn,
way bills on London are accommodating
while the special nvo from Londoi
who are coming to this side to negotiate
the placing of British credits have APP
parentiy not yet started on their journey