The sun., 1916-01-08
FINANCIAL NEWS
And COMMENT
Stocks Make an Extensive
Rally After Further Early
Weakness.
LIST CLOSES STRONG

That the stock market had been over
sold again In the weeks declining move
ment was indicated yesterday by the
sharpness with which prices rallied
early In the session and the vigor with
which they maintained their recovery to
a strong close. II was proved once more
that however the position Of numerous
descriptions might be impaired. at lcast
technically, the basic conditions on
which values rest were persistently ope.
rative to offer increasing resistance to
pressure and restore the price level
which measures the present profitable
expansion and activity Of general busi.
ness. The discounting Of the future
Is another matter and Wall Street has
still to see signs that would sugges,
any change In the forward trend. al
though the share list may suffer occa :
sional confusion and unscttlement.
Trading was in about the same VOL
tune as the previous average for the
week. Dealings still had large pro-
fessional quality. but In some directions
there were tokens Of substantial trans
actions for important outside account.
Particularly was this true at the lower
range Of quotations in the fore part of
the day. An impressive demand was
then disclosed for leading issues which
was primarily responsible for the sub
sequent hardening movement, although
bu! ing OF the sort did not follow prices
up. Purchases on the advance seemed
In most descriptions to be for the re-
tirement OF short commitments, for
there Is no doubt that during the week
the trading element had very largely
taken the selling side OF tho market.
The closing OF short contracts was the
principal feature OF the afternoon deal
ings.
Weakness was almost exclusively con.
fined to the first hour OF the day, in
which new low prices for the week were
made by various specialties. particularly
In the war munltion group. Their fail
did not, however. communicate disturb
ing effects to the general list and bear
ish enorfs to force commission house
liquidation were not very successful
United States Steel exercised wide in
huence over the market and when IL was
seen that there was an almost unlimited
demand for this aud other standard In
dustrials. including; the copper issues.
bearish traders proceeded to bid the
market UP on themselves. There was n
liberal supply OF stocks on the rally, but
the buying movement carried the re.
covery aggrcssively forward In the late
trading. the feature OF which was the
'."''> S'''hS'H ulspi"Neu ny hilcIlCatl
Can.
IN the foreign exchange market Ger
man bills continued their daily sag, but
the important circumstance was the
swift reaction in sterling. Demand bills
closed AZ +.'5i,. a loss OF ois cents for
the day. and their reaction suggested
that speculative buying for both ac-
counts had played a large part in Thurs
days display of violent strength. At
the same time there was a very obvious
suspension of Liquidation OF securities
for foreign account. or at all events a re.
duction of foreign sales TO their former
minimum. and this lifting OF pressure
facilitated the stock market rally. The
Anglo-Frcnch bonds incidentally made a
further gain and sold at the highest
price reached since the expirat on Of the
syndicate agreement last month.
There was no overnight news TO fur
n.sh II stimulus to Wall Street action,
but Washington reports before midday
relative 10 the status Of international af-
fairs were a factor in the expression Of
more optimistic stock market sentiment
The intliul;iuns that Germany was pre-
pared To make n settlement Of the I.usi-
tana CASE on the basis Of washington's
demands encouraged the hope that all
the issues Of submarine warfare would
be amicably adjusted. With respect to
domestic factors IL might be- said also
that Judge Garys statements abou, the
business future seemed to 5e better
understood as having Il very long range
application and that they should he in
terpreted in the light OF the optimism
denoted by the corporations lead in
raising the wages OF labor In the steel
mills