The sun., 1919-01-09
FINANCIAL NEWS
AND COMMENT
half Session Dull With Inter
est Devoted Again to the
Peace Stocks.
CHANGES IN FRACTIONS
Standards Show Tendency to
Pick Up Toward the Clos
ing Time.
CHANGES IN FRACTIONS

The stock market went through an
other quiet session on the Stock Ex-
change yesterday in which. on the whole,
rather conspicuous strength was dis
played In some directions The prospect
or n half holiday In the market out of
respect to Col Roosevelt. however.
tended to intensity the duness. and de-
spite the fact that good round total Of
business was turned over under the cir
cumstances. the general movements were
OF very little significance SO far as in
dicating anything as to the future. Ac-
tic!ty continued to centre in the indus
trial speculatives which have come to be
known as the peace stocks But Just be-
fore the closing the tendency of dealings
In the standard list was to pick up. and
In the case OF n majority OF the leading
speculative favorites the net change Of
the day probably averaged a fraction
over the preceding days final. At least
this was tho result revealed In the Gus
to1nary statistical averages
There was no news however, to stimu-
late interest in the trading and. so far
az the more important speculative ele-
went was concerned, II did not appear
disposed 10 do much in securities before
the reopening of business to-day. A
small amount of satisfaction continued
Washington with respect to the investi-
cation by the Senate Interstate Com
merce Committee into the proposed rail-
road legislation. But whatever ground
was found here for encouragement I'M
doubtedly was more than Offset by con-
tinued unfavorable reports as TO the cop
per situation and other Industrial con-
s'derations with which tho financial
community Is engaged. Still the under
lying flrmness of the market and its dis
position to improve on itself evoked n
considerable amount OF favorable COM
ment on the part of those who have been
looking forward TO further recovery In
the general list The fact that the mar
ket had TO depend for its strength mainly
on the oils and Industrial specialties.
however, was not indicative In a conClu-
sive sense that those who are usually
responsible for important market move
ments in the general list are "a yet lined
UP on the side o.. advancing prices for
any definite period.
The strength OF these issues neverthe-
less was the outstanding feature OF the
day. as in the case OF preceding sessions
Of late. Virtually all Of these issues
moved to higher levels, including In par
,icular General Cigars, United Cigar
Stores and American Suratra among the
Leather, American Hide and Leather,
American Linseed. Texas and Pacific. and
in fact all other miscellaneous stocks
which have been conspicuous for their
strength recently. The standard list. that
is to say. tho higher priced investment
rails such as Union. Reading and Southen
Pacific, were disposed to be firm, as
were most OF the more important
steels and standard industrials, but
whatever improvements were recoded
early were not sustained. and. as a gem
eral rule the net result OF the days trans
actions was a small fractional gain. Still
there were no really weak features, ex-
cept for the coppers, which were heavy.
fractions continued TO improve in
response to reports OF an agreement be-
tween the city and traction officials
relative TO higher fares. while the
marines were weak again.
Not a great deal OF attention was paid
Of the money market, which was slightly
irmer for both classes of funds. Call
loans closed at from 6 TO 6i3 per cent.
az compared with ) 10 5ia per cent on
Tuesday. rejecting the Offering OF an
other block OF certificates OF indebted
ness by the Treasury Department and
the preparations by the banks for the
payment of them, This is only tenn
porary condition. however. and bankers
expect that the situation will right itself
Cga!n as soon as the payments have been
completed. There was a frmer tone In
the foreign exchange market for sterling,
francs and lire, but most OF the neutral
rates continued heavy. although not
greatly changed from tho preceding day 3
ANAL