Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-20
MARKET HOPEFUL
AT YULE SEASON
Wall Street Financiers Looking
Ahead to Better Things
in 1920
MUCH DEPENDS ON TREATY

Stock sales today on the New York
Exchange, RS compiled by the Evening
Sun, totaled All 100 shares.
New York, Dec. 20.-The New York
Evening Sun in its weekly financial re-
view today says:
There was good buying in the first
hour of today's short session of the
stock market, and prices we're gener-
ally higher within moderate limits.
Trading enjoyed intervals Of animation,
but transactions on the whole were
not large.
Perhaps the most interesting feature
in Wall street was the violent. rise In
the foreign exchanges, particularly in
sterling, which at the outset gained
nearly Z cents the pound sterling at
$3.S2M, while francs got back below
the IL francs to the dollar level, that
is to say, at 1882. Lire were up IL
points at 1917 lire to the dollar and
marks recovered points to 2,1O cents
the mark. Neutral rates were virtually
unchanged.
The impulse behind the advance in
the leading exchanges was supplied by
the secretary of the treasury's letter to
the chairman of the House ways and
means committee on the subject of
funding the interest due on allied in
debtedness to this country and the
necessity for extending credits to starv-
ing Europe If civilization was TO be
saved The incident was mainly of in
terest, however, as indicating the ex-
treme sensitiveness of the speculative
position in that market.
1T is a thing to be expected that
sentiment in the financial community
should improve as the end of the year
approaches. The transition from one
year to another, irrespective of financial
settlements and other calendar under =
takings, engages the Imagination and
encourages a forward contemplation OF
the future more active and vigorous,
perhaps, than at any other time.
Everybody feels in varying degree
that December 81 closes a chapter in
the worlds story and that January !
/ opens a new one. Whatever there may
have been in the closing chapter that
was distressing or perplexing, however
many problems there were left un
solved or partly solved or inethciently
solved the chapter about to be opened
is certain to be interesting and agree
able and Geplete with fruition until il
proves itself something different. This
is entirely human. 1t is the element
of psychology which keeps the worc
moving and which, at this season, has 8
strong ally in the spirit pervading the
Yuletide.
Wall Street Looking Ahead
wall street has passed into tha
realm of pleasant illusion. 1t is look
ing ahead to the coming twelve months
the while Christmas festivities are il
the making. Interest in securities trad
ing was at low ebb this week and thu
volume of business transacted was light
What do you think the market will dt
for the balance Of the yearT and 'd'
YOU look for bull market after the new
year?' were stock questions. Those witt
essayed to answer were not very ex
plicit. There was evident rathe
bored acquiescence in proffered opinions
since there is not long to wait and se
what will happen.
"Problems confronting the countr.
must be solved some time. Some o
! them are obviously near solution. Fo
example, 1T cannot be long before tn
fate of the peace treaty will be know
and that fate will involve the futur
| of the foreign exchanges and the tabrl
of our foreign trade. Expectations wer
daily agog over the administration in
tentions with respect to the railroads
The industrial situation concerning pro
duction,' adjustment of labor disputes
: RECOMMENDATION and distribution has al
, ready rdpC experienced amelioration. None
has eased materially following upol
,, completion of mid December financin
+. of federal taxes, war bond interest pay
ments and so on.
; Foreign exchange supplied the topi
of paramount interest in the weel
: closing today. Movements in that mar
4 ket were violent and apparently erratic
9 although. as it turned, out, quite. il
r keeping with the speculative position
' The hope that the rise in the first hal
Z of the week might prove to be defnit
e turn in trend, based on measures take
I abroad to stabilize rates, wrs not real
. lied. The subsequent decline, while
{ aid not cancel all of the gain achieved
= was scarcely less pronounced, particu
larly in sterling and francs. The fac
seems to be that the long long drawn drawn; Op
fsactlOS sNecnlatve nat pee clement and had gon
| much too far.