The sun., 1919-09-17
FINANCIAL NEWS
AND COMMENT
Trading Again Much Confused,
but General Improvement
Comes Near Close.
OLD FAyORITES DO LITTLE
Activity Of American Locomo-
tive and Stocks Usually
Quiet4s Feature.
OLD FAyORITEs DO LITTLE

Trading in the stock market was very
confused again yesterday. with a great
shifting around Of commitments from
one group of stocks to another In
manner which suggested heavy profit
taking in the recent speculative favorites
and equally as heavy absorption Of some
| of the less active specialties, which lately
have been pretty generally neglected
| in the advancing movement. The old
| favorites of the type of Baldwin, Cruci-
BILE. Mexican Petroleum and the motsr
| stocks, as well as others which have
attracted more than the usual amount
of attention at the hands of speculative
Wall street recently did very little. one
way or the other, at any stage Of the
session. But in the absence of any ex-
came to the front in the form of Ameri-
| can Locomotive, American Can, New
.Yorlx Air Brake and some of the lower
priced automobile accessory stocks to
make up. in part at least, for whatever
was lacking by reason Of the heaviness
of the standard stocks.
Nothing. new of Importance developed
| in the steel strike situation over night,
and for this reason the financial COM
| munity had not come down prepared to
see much more than a continuation of
the narrow, professional movements of
the last week. There was no change
in sentiment about the strike, but IL was
generally agreed In comission houses
before the opening that little or nothinA
could be expected until after to-days
meeting OF the labor leaders in the steel
district. The strength of the speciality
issues. therefore, was very surprising in
| most quarters, and 1t was not until the
final hours that Wall Street actually
realized that something more than pro.
fessional operations were responsible for
the improvement. Then the strength
spread to the whole list and the improve
ment became quite general, except in the
case Of the steel shares. At the same
| time, however, there were indications Of
continued heavy selling on scale in
the standard stocks This gave the
market a very confused and irregular
appearance. circumstance which
brought about a mixed opinion from
commission houses after the closing as
to the immediate future of security
values.
The big feature of the day. of course
was the strength OF American Loconio.
tive. This issue had been heavy during
the recent movement in Baldwin, but
yesterday 1t was practically the whole
market for a time. Starting around
noon at just over par the issues went to
a new high of 1101a and maintained
most of the Improvement to the closing
At the same time 1t was responsible fol
the strength in most of the other spe.
cialty issues. On the other hand Bald.
win. Crucible and Mexican were decid-
ladl haa oil
tinued to characterize Steel common. but
relatively speaking this issue did better
than most of the other speculative IA
1 vorites. At any rate its heaviness was
j due to neglect rather than to selling
| pressure, whereas other recent favorites
seemed to be under the pressure Of
heavy selling all day. Excellent buying
continued in all of the tobacco stocks
particularly in American Tobacco, which
held its strength in spite of the heavi
ness of most Of the standard stocks
Likewise there were a number of motor
accessories issues which did better thar
the general run Of stocks, although one
or two OF these issues was decidedly
| weak.
There was no special change in thu
money situation Call money loaned
around s per cent all day in spite o.
predictions in some quarters that none!
might be tight on account of the pay
ments, on the day before, of the thir(
instalment OF Federal taxes. AS ha
been stated in this column more thar
once lately. this payment really amount
ed to nothing more than a bookkeeping
Arrangement and that therefore, Their
was no real reason why money should
loan above the 6 per cent. level. Thu
foreign exchange market was very veal
again. Continental exchange went int
fresh stage of collapse with franc
and lire making new low records for al
time. Sterling also was very weak
coming within fraction of its previou
lew, established last month. Rumor
were current again about the establish
mert of credits in this country in favo
of both France and Belgium. but thu
far no confirmation has been obtainet