New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-08-11
FINANCIAL RECORD
HERE And ABROAD
Railroads Lead Market in
MilliOn-Share Day
War Stocks Heavy.

Railroad stocks assumed n place OF
the first importance in yesterdays mar
ket at the expense of the war issues
which have so long been its leaders.
They rose buoyantly in the early trad
ing and continued strong until the mid
die Of the afternoon. Then they fell
under the influence Of general reac-
ton. although they kept well above
Mondays closing figures. Later they
rallied sharply and closed with gains
ranging from to 81 points. In the
case Of Canadian Pacific, which had in
Yesterdays market the first chance to
reflect the action Of the directors in
declaring the regular rate of dividend,
the net gain ran to Ga points.
Trading was at all times active. and
the broadening of the list through the
diversion of important spectators and
investors TO the railroad shares helped
to bring the days total turnover up to
well over the million-share point. Steel
was the most active security of all, &C
counting for more than 90 per cent OF
the days business and rising 10 1914
in the early dealings, an extreme gain
of pa points, that was reduced in the
final dealings to q Of a point. The
pace set for il in the last few days was
apparently too fast to be maintained
without some setback. A reaction was
overdue, if anything After Steel, in
point of activity, came Westinghouse
but with only about third Of SteePs
volume Of trading. The railroad shares
were close behind.
From the outset Steel and the rail
road issues monopolized attention.
Thew ar stocks moved uncertainty, and
there was the same absence of en-
thusiasm about them that was evident
on Monday and late last week, West
inghouse and the Allis-Chalmers issues
constituting the exceptions. The big
short interest that had been built up In
Canadian Pacific because of the pros
pect of dividend reduction on account
of the extraordinary losses IN gross
and net earnings, rushed to cover al
the opening, and within a quarter OF an
hour the stock showed an advance OF
4 points. Union Pacific, Southern Ia
cifc. Reading, Chesapeake q ONO ana
Lehigh Valley and the shares Of the
Northwestern group of railroads were
all heavily bought, and inside OF inc
first half hour or so showed gains rang
ing from l TO 3 points. Two OF the
most important influences In the ad-
vance Of the railroad shares were the
governments crop report, made pubic
on Monday. and the circumstantlal dis
patches from Washington TO the effect
that the Western roads were to ne
granted the rate increases they had
asked from the Interstate Commerce
Commission. Then there was obvious
" a switching over Of speculative IN
terest from the war issues, whose re-
cent performance had aroused sus'
picions of distribution by pools.
In the middle of the afternoon
Crucible Steel slumped badly and tenn
porarily unsettled the list. The reac-
ton was general, though the industrial
issues, conspicuously Pressed Steel Car
shares. suffered rather more than the
railroads, the latter retaining a consld-
cradle part of their early gains. At
the close there was a sharp rally. Two
railroad issues made new high prices
for the year, Lehigh Valley and Nor
folk & Western. and Erie common
touched its previous high price OF 81
Because of the rapid increase in pro-
duction Of the steel mills IN July there
had been no consensus about the IN
crease in untitled tonnage as OF August
/ Estimates had run anywhere from
LDN.UOU IONS 10 duONt ONDfONN- ~ -
port Of 250.344 tons increase was there
fore a disappointment to the trading
community in some measure, although
comfort was drawn from the fact that
the comparative smallness Of the de-
crease was due to no lack of demand:
News that a considerable amount of
gold was on its way here from Nova
Scotia. which had been sent from Eng
land-the first direct shipment Of size
since the war began-was received with
much interest in the Street. II was not
until late in the day that the exact
amount. S5O,OOO,00O, became known
Notwithstanding the import Of gold,
which will probably prove only the
forerunner Of other shipments, the rate
for sterling checks declined still fur
ther, to 1.78a,, and the close was
weak. French exchange broke sharply
likewise to a new low record, closing
at 5.7812 for checks and 5.7S for cables.