Evening star., 1915-11-03
WAR STOCKS IN SLUMP,
BREAKING THE LIST
Opening Was Fairly Strong, But
Bear Sentiment Dominated in the
Old Speculative Leaders.
Rails and Equipments Made Good
Gains, But Only Partially Held.
Margin Calls and Peace Talk.

| NEW YORK, November 3.-With the
immediate opening there was disposi-
tion to make bull card of the result
| of Tuesdays elections. the leading spe-
cialties and many rail shares starting
off with good gains.
| Traders generally expected that the
| elections would be bull card and Gus
toners rooms were crowded with spec
tators. while many buying commissions
were placed.
There were other factors, however,
that seemed to be more important than
the election returns. Peace talk Is
more rife than ever and Wall street
: has reached the mood where peace
would be a smash to war stocks. even
to those with orders for 1916 produc-
tive capacity.
The pessimsm in official circles in
England also aided the bears, al
though so far as any one knows there
| are no signs of peace in the immediate
future and peSSlmiSm is not lnfrequent-
! ly assumed for a purpose.
| The turn came soon after the open
! ing. hitting the war stocks; in the
meantime the rails showed good
strength and advanced very materially
| throughout the entire list.
Studebaker Announcement.
Announcement was made shortly be-
fore IL o'clock that the Studebaker
company would have an important an
nouncement to make about that hour,
and on the strength of this report
Studebaker, one of the active specu-
lative leaders. moved up from 1874,
where it had gone from ITO, the high
of the morning, to 1691s; but in the
next half hour. no announcement hav-
ing been made. it became decidedly
weak and reacted to 1852.
Midway between the second hour of
the session the announcement was
made public that the Studebaker COM
pany had declared the regular dividend
for the quarter and l per cent extra.
| looked for 3 to 5 per cent extra, and
there were some who even looked for a
doubling of capital and per cent on
the increased capitalization.
The increase was responsible for an
advance in the twenty minutes follow
stock recover to 12419
/ Baldwin Locomotive was weak
throughout the session, breaking 3k
points, recovering points and losing
an additional point
Bethlehem Steel, 425.
Bethlehem Steel dropped from 461 to
high of October %.
Crucible Steel yas very weak, drop
ping to T5h-a loss of 6% points; Will
lys-overland. 9 points off, and Gem
eral Motors. II points.
! While this action was taking place in
stocks that have heretofore been the
| keen favorites in the speculative rush,
many minor industrials were on the
| upgrade. speculation being diverted to
! these the while the railroads continued
to command considerable confidence.
| In the last half hour of the morning
| the rails turned weak under the in
| fuence of the pressure on the industri-
ais. but nearly everything in this
group held partial advances through to
the end of the session.
Minor Industrials.
The equipment stocks acted well un-
der the influence of large orders. Penn
sylyania was reported as having orders
in for 1000 to 1000 gondolas and 1000
to 5000 hopper cars, while for lines
east of Pittsburgh $500 steel cars, so
coaches and so combination baggage
and express cars were wanted, also 6
diners and g combination cars. Della
ware and Lackawanna wants 1000 steel
cars 500 gondoIas and 500 hoppers.
Air Brake adva-ced 2h points. Steel
Springs y, Car Foundry q and others
kaA.
ing's gain maintained during the morn
ing was q; Norfolk and Western, u ,
from 2-point rise. Eries a fraction;
Southern Pacific. IL; Union Pacific, Vi;
Atch,son, pNnt. and Union Pacific y
DistiIers, Chalmers. Consoli-
dated Gas, Sugar and Colorado Fuel all
made good gains.
Steel Common Irregular.
Steel common lost u of a point. 1t
acted irregularIy. but without espe-
cial weakness. was high at s7A and
low at s6% and moderately active.
The Tammany victory was given as
the reason for a sharp advance made in
InterborQugh shares.
In the final hour of the morning the
list became less active.
Crrcible steeFs Report.
The crucible Steel Company reports
earnings for the year ended with Au-
gust of s3,o7s,74s. an increase of ST.
O5s,710 over the 1914 net showing.
The present showing is equal to 1925
per cent on the preferred stock. of
which there is s25, 900, 900. and on which
there are back dividends of a consider
able amount cumulated.
The Missouri, Kansas and Texas Rail-
road Company has defaulted on interest
payment due November ! on $4,000, 900
6 per cent notes, maturing with May /,
1916.
Central Leather increased dividend
from l per cent to per cent. This ac-
ton was fully discounted.
Weakness Shown.
In the afternoon the market con-
tinued weak. This was again more
marked in the speculative leaders than
in the other industrials or the rails.
Studebaker went back to 1853, Baldwin
Locomotive to 134l[ Crucible Steel to