The sun., 1918-10-25
.FINANCIALNEWS
AND COMMENT
Stock Market Settles Down and
Amount Of Business
Decreases.
STRONG SPOTS IN LIST
War Issues Sustain Strength
Throughout the Session
Specialties Improve.
STRONG SPOTS IN LIST

| No conclusive light was thrown during
yesterdays. session on the problem Of
major Importance with which the finan-
ciai community is now preoccupied and
the stock market gave evidence Of this
In its contracted volume OF dealings.
What the response might have been TO
definitely bad news Is contectural. but
there was unmistakable encouragement
In the subsistence OF the feverish selling
| movement which agitated tho share list
throughout Wednesdays session. Trad
ing still continued somewhat In excess
| OF the average volume of q month ago.
but the session as a whole was quieter
from start to finish, and Wall Street had
| no complaint to make over the slachen-
Ing OF business despite the irregular ten
dency which characterized the general
list. The contraction in dealings, in fact,
was one OF the most satisfactory fea-
lures. as II suggested a sensible recog-
milton OF the fact that recent speculative
activity has been excessive.
The fact that business was quieteI
was, OF course. directly traceable to the
uncertainty of the money situation. This
| was not reflected 30 much in prices as In
}the volume of trading for the reason that
the financial district was far from con.
WINGED that the money committee In.
tended to take any steps that would be
likely to unsettle speculative affairs. Al
though this belief was contrary to the
facts as disclosed by the announcement,
by the committee after the close of busi-
ness and although IL was contrary Ia
opinion in conservative quarters during
| the day, II nevertheless was the influence
under which prices were governed fol-
the greater part of the day. As regards
the decision Of the committee to curb
Stock Exchange activity. Wall Street had
| only one complaint to make after the
announcement had been made. This con.
| cerned the reason why those in control
of Wall Streets money purse had no,
deemed It advisable to clear up some OF
| the uncertainty heretofore. There Is nc
| reasonable argument in favor Of specu-
lation to the extent II was carried on ir
the last two weeks: but II Is equally
true that there L. no reason, on the sur.
face, at least. why the money COMMITTEES
should have kept the stock market com.
munity in the state Of uncertainty 1t has
for the last two days.
] Despite the uncertainty and despite
the fact that a good deal OF the trading
was on the selling side OF the marke,
| there were quite number of strong
| spots In the list, and at times a salts.
! factory semblance of stability In the
| market as a whole. This was particu-
larly true Of the last half hour Of trad
ing. when word came that the money
committee intended to make some an
nouncement with respect to the situa-
ton at about 4 o'clock. However. II
did not do much more than to Arm the
general list. although gains of substan-
tial fractions were recorded in some d.
reclons. About the only group Of stocks
to show sustained strength throughout
the day were the war Issues, which
have been largely neglected OF late
Here there was a well defined undertops
of strength based on the belief that the
Presidents note to Germany might pro
duce for the time being some revulsior
Of feeling which has prevailed OF late
| that the nd OF the war Is not far of
All Of the war specialties improved. In
Guiding Baldwin, Industrial Alcohol
Bethlehem Steel and the tobaccos.
| The feeling that the chances of ar
the Presidents note was also reflected
to some extent in the neutral exchange
rates. those in particular which have
been under the heaviest pressure re.
Gently. Despite the uncertainty over
| what action the money committee would
take with respect to limiting the supply
OF speculative funds there was the frs,
supply OF time money in any quantity
In yesterdays market for many weeks
Call money continued In good supply
| but rates on both classes of funds were
unchanged. The bond market was ac-
tive and generally higher with the ex.
| ception of foreign Government issues
| which moved Off for the same reason
that neutral exchange improved and war
| stocks came into better favor.