The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-10-24
FINANClALN NEWS u.
AND COMMENT
After Rising Rapidly, Market
Drops Under Selling Pres
sure to Weak Close.
is sTEADIER NEAR FINISH
Decline Is Sharpest in Higher
Priced Specialties and
Speculative Issues.

The stock market had to face yester-
day the most important test OF Its un-'
DERIVING position which It has expert
enced since the new rising movement
began. With the, overnight news dis
tfnctIy unfavorable and with the ma
Jority of speculative stocks In highly
sensitive technical position, as result
of the continuous advance in prices for
, the last month, the whole list opened
very unfavorably. The strength Of the
general market. however, was still very
! surprising In face of the news and the
, trading fraternity Immediately took adj
vantage of the occasion by beginning a
new rising movement which centred in
the steel shares. There was very
spectacular advance In Lackawanna
Steel, equal in violence in fact to the
rise on the preceding day In Republic.
The rise here, however, was entirely too
rapid to be maintained and II started
just such movement as walrStreet has
been expecting for the last few days,
selling movement which continued with
little interruption to a weak and unset
tied closing.
The whole thing was entirely due to
technical conditions, and under the cir
cumstances prices probably broke no fur
Their than experienced traders had ex-
pected. As a matter of fact the market
held considerably better than expected
in most quarters. 1t Is true that the
change in the situation in Washington
in connection with the Industrial con-
ference undoubtedly had some effect on
the market, but II was not half as seri-
Gus as many people were led to believe.
Had 1t turned out differently Wafi Street
unquestionably would have considered the
situation all the more unfavorable, for
unoer the circumstances recognition Of
the resolution which resulted In the
withdrawal Of the labor group would
have meant the losing of the steel strike,
which the financial district has been
celebrating as won for the last week or
more. The withdrawal of the labor
group from the conference, however,
brought up many new questions which
Will have to be faced but with yester-
days session 1t was not so much these
considerations which Influenced the SELL
ing as It was technical consideration,
Had there been any real fear In connec-
ton with the labor difficulties the break
yesterday would have gone much fur
Their. .A
As IT turned out the worst selling
centred In the higher priced specialties
and recent highly speculative issues
Lackawanna Steel. which had experienced
IL point rise in almost as many min
utes. led the break by selling down to
practically where 1t started. while Cru
chile, another spectacular feature of the
early trading. lost all of its ~ point gain
The decline in the rest of the market
ranged anywhere from / to points and
more. but nowhere were there any such
evidences of weakness as In the highly
speculative issues. Steel common went
below los. but. along with the rest of the
list recovered part of its gain in the
q xuh Ia he
very violently. The only really very
strong spots In the list were the tobac-
cos. Toward the closing a steadying pc
| riod set In and the .tobaccos came for
ward as the feature of the market
United Retail Stores and American To-
bacco lead this movement standing ths
test In a remarkable manner all through
the day. and closing with net gains
This was one OF the few groups to show
net gains on the day.
There was at least one thing certain
about yesterdays market and that was
that the money market had no part In
the selling. Money was easy all through
the session. opening at per cent for re-
| newals and closing the session under 6
per cent. The break yesterday. from one
point OF view at least. undoubtedly had
the effect OF strengthening the money
| position. With the volume of stocks run
ming over two millions, there may have
| been very substantial reduction in
| loans. which was not only pleasing to
the banking fraternity, but to the COM
| mission houses as we'll. There was moth
ing spectacular in the foreign exchange
market. Sterling held very well all day,
az might have been expected In view
Of the offering Of q $3.50, 200. 900 British
loan in .this market to-day. Italian lire,
however. was very unsettled again. ex-
periencing another very sharp decline at
| the outset.