The sun., 1919-04-23
FINANCIAL NEWS
AND COMMENT
Stocks Continue Strong Tone
in Broadcast Market of
This Year.
PUBLIC TRADING ACTIVE
Session Is Featured by Rails,
Which, Firm All Day, Go
to Higher Levels.
PUBLIC TRADING ACTIVE

In the broadcast market of the year
and the second largest in point Of vol
ume. stocks as a result of public par
ticipation and Of news developments OF
favorable character were strong in
tone, particularly in the last half hour.
with the upward movement in rails the
most remarkable feature. The early
trading was characterised by Irregular
lily In the industrials brought about by
proht-taking in some quarters. but it
was observed that even a small recess
sion brought in new buying. The rails
were firm from the start. the low
priced issues attracting the greater
speculative following. The sharp ad-
Nances in the industrials came in the
last half hour following the announce
ment that all black list restrictions on
trade and commerce had been removed
ana the steels were aided by reports.
which were denied after the close to
the effect that complete agreement on
steel prices had been reached. There
was little to indicate that the present
bull market had reached its heighth.
On the contrary. the theorists who
anticipated still higher prices pointed to
the bulish demonstration in the rails
and the squirt in all stocks near the clos
ing as indices OF further favorable de-
yelopments
The rails. OF course. have been lioui-
dated quietly during the past few DAYS,
and the opinion was that those who
still held rail stocks were prepared TO
hold them until railroad finance should
improve. a moderate amount of fresh
buying in these issues was sufficient.
consequently, TO move this department
Na e..
be based on the report that railroad Il
| finances had been cared for until the
end OF June, that all OF the bad news
had been published with the prospect
that as soon as Congress convened the
railroad treasures would be replenished
| through the revolving fund and the new
| plan announced for a gradual return OF
the roads to private ownership. Some
! OF the low priced rails were said to
have been bought on reports that oil
had been discovered on their right OF
way, but the news developments alone
were sufficient TO improve sentiment re-
garding the rail stocks.
! The activity in stocks was widely dis
| tributed. United States Steel common
! with about 100000 shares out of tn,
| total sales of approximately 1900. 00(
! shares, was the largest in point OF vol
| ume, but nineteen other stocks presented
a total In excess of 10000 shares each
| with Il number~of new issues in the SUI
peractive list. in this group were Mis-
souri,, Kansas and Texas. Texas and Pa
| cific. Southern Railway and Missouri
Pacific. all low priced rails. In the alb
| sence OF definite announcements from
! Paris. 1t was expected that Wall Stree
| would pay exclusive attention to domes
| tic Developments. which included favor
| able reports regarding the rails. a state
| trent OF earnings for the first quarter o.
! 1919 by ths Central Leather Company
| showing sass a share for the common
| against s1.40, and the report on exports
| of foodstuffs and agricultural product,
| for March. In that month no less than
So96, 1856 was the value Of such ex'
/ ports. against S25s.l27,016 a year age
| and s13S,40S,3sS two years ago. For the
nine months ended March 81. the value
| OF agricultural exports was s2.26s.6sS,
1873, against si,6I5,02sfls The domes-
tic considerations, however. were laid
aside as soon as the removal Of the black
list was announced. Wall Street conclud-
ing that the Peace Conference had ma de
more real progress than the dispatches
indicated.
Foreign exchange was extremely quiet
owing to the observance OF Easter
abroad. In the money market there was
no sign OF stringency. call loans on mixed
collateral getting down TO per cent
during the day. Time funds ranged
ncminally from ia per cent. TO "a. psr
cent, the banks holding out for per.
cent The attention OF the investment
market was centred on the Victory bond
campaign. many investment houses de-
voting their entire sales forces TO the
disposition OF the new Governme Mt
hopdx