The sun., 1918-12-04
FINANCIAL NEWS
AND COMMENT
Stock Market Continues High
ly Professional in
Character.
TRADE ON LARGER SCALE
General Rise. in Industrial
Shares-Railroad Group
Fairly Stable.
TRADE ON LARGER SCALE

Tho stock market was still highly
professional yesterday. Dealings were
on a somewhat larger scale than on
Monday. although still below the average
OF recent volumes. and outside OF a show
of animation In the first hour the mar
ket was comparatively inactive for the
larger part Of the day. However prices
were fairly strong throughout the ses-
sion, and. despite the indisposition OF the
speculative community to do much in
securities until a more satisfactory argu-
ment has been provided for constructive
effort there was a. rather general rise in
the industrial department Undoubtedly
there was large percentage of short
covering In the purchases, but there
seemed also TO be more confident buying,
particularly in some OF the industrial
specialties, which have been rather neg
lected in the last few weeks The rails
exhibited a fair degree OF stability, but
were disappointing after the promising
rise In the last hour of Mondays session.
Further consideration of the Presi-
dents address to Congress failed to have
much Influence on the days business.
1t was realized that what the President
said with respect to the railroads was
constructive for a long distance view,
but inasmuch as there wac no immediate
promise of anything except Congress
sional wrangling over the future railroad
programme speculative Wall Street was
disposed to await developments. AS a
matter Of fact. far moro interest attended
the various rumors during the day con-
corning the possibility of a removal OF
the money restrictions. one of which
went so far as to intimate that there
was reason TO believe that there might
be an immediate withdrawal Of the regu-
lations. Investigations however, failed
to susbtantiate these reports. and the
best opinion seemed to be that there
might be some further steps In the way
OF relaxation around January /. al
| though 1t is not expected that the entire
| restrictions will be removed by that
| time However that may be, the rumors
filled the purpose Of providing Wall
Street with something TO talk about, and
incidentally tended to help along the
| movement in progress on the Stock Ex-
change, but that was about all that
could be said about them so far as their
| relation to facts was concerned
Railroad shares went into higher
ground at the outset, but for the rest
of the day the market in these is
| sues was devoted pretty generally to an
| absorption OF speculative profits accru-
ing in the rise on Monday. This was dis
tinctly disappointing to those who had
counted on a further reelection Of the
Presidents speech in yesterdays mar
ket, but a perfectly natural occurrence
considering the professional character OF
the trading. So was the rise in the in
dustrial department. The Indications
here have right along been that the mar
ket for thess particular shares has betn
somewhat oversold, and that even though
there might be some further liquidation
In the process of a readjustment to a
peace basis a natural recoil would not
be out OF order. This apparently ac-
! counted for the greater part of yester-
days strength. although in some depart
any rate the steel. including Bethlehem
and the minor industrials. were strong
| throughout the day. and the equipments,
Industrial Alcohol and tobaccos came
into greater favor than they have en-
joyed OF late. So did American Can.
| which experienced an especially sharp
rise considering the character OF the
days business.
There was no change in the money
situation. despite the frequent reports
concerning the possibility Of a removal
OF speculative restrictions in the imme-
diato future. Call loans were made on
the Stock Exchange all day at from to
ela per cent, rejecting the continued
withdrawal by the Treasury Department
from the local banks. This. however is
more OF less of Temporary situation
and 1t is expected that after the present
transactions have been completed money
will again drop to the levels which char
acterized the money market most of last
week Foreign exchange continued
quiet Most of the neutral rates were
easier but not greatly changed from the
preceding days closing.