The sun., 1918-12-18
FINANCIAL NEWS
AND COMMENT
Stock Trading Highly Pro-
fessional and Generally
Unsatisfactory.
MARKET HEAVY AT CLOSE
RumOr That Loan Restrictions
Would Be Removed Held
Early Prices Firm.

There were two main influences be-
hind the strength in the stock market
yesterday. One was the remarkable
power OF resistance to the decline dis
played by the main speculative position
during the stiff reaction of previous
days. and the other was a report that.
the money committee was about to re-
move all speculative restrictions. The
second furnished the hope that trading
would soon be resumed on the old basis,
with plenty of money for Stock Ex-
change purposes, But the latter was
obviously inspired, and when In the last
hour no confirmation was forthcoming
the greater number OF specula tive favor
ties lost their f1rmness and the market
turned heavy at the closing, which was
about the low OF the day. There were
several speclalties which maintained
their advances and which appeared to
be in better demand than other securi-
ties. But on the whole trading was still
highly professional and generally un-
| satisfactory.
Nevertheless the trend Of prices was
more encouraging than Il has been re-
| Gently, and It went to show what prob
1
! ket II the money committee should sud-
denly lift the speculative restrictions.
But It would appear that the sooner Wall
| Street gets to understand that there Is
no likelihood OF any modification or re-
taxation of these regulations until after
the next Liberty Loan Is well out of the
way, the better things will be all around
In the first place there IL still a great
deal Of financing to be done in connec-
ton with war expense. and secondly il
should be noted that these expenses are
still running a great deal above normal
Notwithstanding the recent calculation:
Of contracts and the curtailment OF wal
activities in general. There has, Of
course been no official intimation o.
what the money committee thinks or tn
situation, but nevertheless enough Il
known OF its views to warrant the state
ment that there is as yet absolutely M
DISPOSITION whatever among the commit
tees members to relax Stock Exchange re
str!ctions Accordingly those whose op
erations usually govern the securities
market still maintain conservative at
titude and are not looking for any larg
volume of activity In the immediat
future.
Still the market yesterday was rathe
strong for the best part Of the day, an
rather encouraging 20 far as tn
strength went. All OF the steels equip
ments and coppers were dispose to
strong and went higher In the mornin
and early afternoon with the specialize
which have been the chief centre os al
traction in speculative circles recently
4 Toward the closing considerable prof
I taking set in and renewed selling OF tn
i Marine shares influenced a reaction troi
l the high, which brought the market frat
/ tionally below the previous days Anal
/ the majority OF active securities. Sp'
Il cialties. however. retained their &C
1 vances somewhat better than the ave-
age run OF stocks and as between II
1 standard industrials and these issue
specialties still seemed to be the chi,
i feature of the speculative markets. no
L withstanding the fact that they wei
slightly overshadowed during the NOR,
I ing by the strength OF the steels IT
j fact Of TIE matter Is that buying OF Z
4 Individual shares recently has been
| an excellent character. fact, howeve
that would indicate that they are like
to be the chief features OF the stock ma
ket for some time to come.
Aside from the rumors concerning Il
| removal of speculative restrictions the
was nothing OF great interest in q
money market, Call money was cal
| and rates were unchanged from q
previous day. The foreign exohanl
market continued quiet Aside from
slight advance in Swiss Checks al
scandinavian rates the market was abo
unchanged from the preceding day
ANAL Liberty 3lks were quite stron
but the rest Of the Government bon
were weak. the Fourth AZ - making
other new low record. The general BOZ
market however. was strong. and the
was a broad market again for all OF 4
foreign Government issues, particular
for the Anglo-French IS, which sold
the high Of the year.