The sun., 1919-01-12
FINANCIAL NEWS
AND COMMENT
Prices SAG on Smallest Amount
Of Transactions Record
cd Last Week.
BOTH SIDES TAKE PROFITS
Rank Statement Shows FALL
BOTH SIDES TAKE PROFITS
Bank Statement Shows Fall
ing Off in Surplus Reserve
Exchange Quiet.

Trading in stocks in the Saturday half
| week and the market continued to pre-
sent about all the varying features OF
strength and reaction which have char
acterized dealings In the last few days
| There was free profit taking on both
! sides of the market and also come ind
| cations OF rather heavy selling again in
! the standard steels and coppers, which
! served TO offset whatever new buNin@
| there may have been on account OF tn.
! disposition OF speculative Wall Street To-
| take a slightly more favorable view OK
| the market for the immediate future.
| There was no fresh argument for selling
securities In any of the news develop
| ments Of the day. hut at the same time
| the uncertainties surrounding the dores-
tic situation continued to make FOR stock
market ire rulari:y, which was the
! manifest Tendency again thrOus hUut the
! two hours Of business.
| Taken AS a whole 1t was a rather d --
appointing affair 10 those who had been
| expecting a technical rally during the
| days trading. The fact that this d /
| not take place WAS not due to any de-
| velopment of an adverse character nor
| to any orlSur occurrence during the day.
able aspects OF Fridays news had con-
! tinuing influence upon the 'uarNe.. The
! appointment OF Walker i. Hines 1854
| Dlrector-General of Railroads was We
J garded alphabetically. and the nuancii..
community was disposed to take a moy'
! favorable view of tho traction situu-
! ton, although this particular phase Of
the current market situation still pre-
scented rather confused and generally
| unsatisfactory appearance. A still further
encouraging feature were the reports to
| weekly trade publications Of a slow but
nevertheless gradual improvement IN
| business. This Is the first time that
| these papers have reported any such
| tendency since the decline In business
| began with the signing of the arIuisticc,
and they were regarded as unusually
significant by the active portion OF the
speculative community.
| The spectacle OF continued pressure
| against the steel shares, including IN
particular Steel common, which touched
| a new low for a period OF almost -
| year back, however was disconccrtine,
| and after few minutes Of hesitation
active selling was resumed Throughout
| the general list. This was not a $ Am
po4'taCt az II looked on the surface OF
| things. but il tended to discourage what
| ever tendency there may have been to
| buy stocks, and or the whole had q
| more or less disquicting influence on
the rest of tie market. With the eN-
! ceptian of stcels. cuba Cane Sugar and
( a few OF the higher priced speciaiities.
however, the selling WIS rather unim-
I portant and the closing presented few sig
| nificaut price changes. For the most part
| the pressure represented an absorption
! OF speculative profits on the long side
| OF the market. and for the rest mis-
! ceiiancoUs assortment OF commission
| house liquidation on the part Of traders
who believe that tho current level OF
! prices 10 still TOO high.
The bank statement disclosed de-
! crease in surplus reserve Of S2,a27.-
900 which was accounted for by slight
| increase In demand deposits and loss
| In cash reserve at the Federal Reserve
Bank Of approximately s6.o00,0o0. The
foreign exchange situation continued
! quiet and without any special feature.
! Neutral rates were tr!fle steadier. but
! aside from this quotations were about
unchanged from the preceding days clos
| ing Bank clearings for the week to-
! tailed s7,269, 316.S44. against s1,S91.s3s,-
| g75 last week and $685., 050,04@ in the
! corresponding week a year ago.