The sun., 1919-10-12

FINANCIAL NEWS
AND COMMENT
Enthusiastic Advance Of Spe-
cialty Stocks Continues in
Broad Market. -
MOTOR SHARES FEATURE
Bank Statement Shows Small
Drop in Surplus Reserve
for Week.
MOTOR SHARES FEATURE

generally the calculations OF professional
traders by continuing very enthusiastic
cally the advance which has been under
way In the speciaities all week. The
market II anything was more buoyant
than ever. and all the more surprising
for the reason that everybody had
figured that Monday being an extra
holiday traders certainly would sell
stocks yesterday II on no other theory
than the fact that there are n good many
persons In the financial district who
make 1t q rule never to carry stocks over
q period OF suspended animation and
always clean UP their commitments on
such selling In yesterdays short session.
however. except In the standard shares.
but this was not important enough to
do more than bring about fractional
declines from the preceding days anal.
The majority Of stocks. on the other
hand. continued their advance and at the
closing prices stood at about the highest
for the week and current movement.
Altogether the continuation of the adj
vancing movement must have been very
surprising indeed to those who have been
harping all along on technical considera-
ton and the irmness OF the money
market. There Is nothing strange, how
ever. in back of the movement for. as
has been pointed out repeatedly. the
whole thing Is due to the prosperity
which this country is facing and not to
the false idea of Just plain professional
and pool operations as some persons
have tried to point out recently. It
might have been supposed. however. that
there would have been a slowing down
In the pace yesterday. but the fact that
evidence of this was visible again
pointed significantly to the enormous
buying power which Is coming from the
country at large~ particularly from the
West The only thing In the news de-
velopments yesterday which might have
been expected to influence prices I'M
favorably were the developments In the
port strike. but this extended only to the
shipping shares and even here there were
Indications of buying on q scale down In
anticipation OF favorable settlement
OF the difficulties by the time business Ia
again resumed on Tuesday. So far as
the steel strike and the news from
Washington of the Industrial conference
was concerned, Wall Street paid no at
tention to II
The outstanding features of the mar
ket again were the motor and accessory
shares. Leading the rest of the list
Chandler Motors made another sharp
advance to new high record and all
other motor issues gained proportionate-
ly, The real leader Of this group from
the point OF view Of transactions UNI
doubtedly was General Motors, but not
from the point Of view of the net ad-
vance. On the other hand the steel
shares. while they did not yield very
much, appeared to be under the tnfiu-
ence of profit taking. Steel common got
up above liz at one stage OF the trad
ing, but toward the closing offerings In
creased Considering, however, the
tremendous advance which the standard
issues have experienced in the last week.
the temptations which confronted trad
ers and the general public to take prof
its on account of the prolonged holiday
over the week end. these issues un-
doubtediy did much better than anybody
expected. At any rate the profit TAX ng
was not nearly as heavy as expected
and. even II Il was, the buying powe.
was equal to the selling
The bank statement disclosed a small
decrease In surplus reserve. which had
no significant bearing on the stock mar
ket. The important thing about the
bank statement was the expansion In
loans. totalling sal 100000 for the week,
and bringing the aggregate loans I'D to
a new high record for all time OF S5,433,-
100000. This was not surprising, how
ever. to experienced observers who have
taken int oaccount the increase in trad
ing and the advance in prices. nor was
there any alarm over the increase in
comm Mission house circles. The view In
these circles Is held that the Increase
IN loans has been very conservative con-
sidertng the size Of the market which
Wall Street has been Witnessing for the
last ten days. The foreign exchange
market was steadieY yesterday than for
some days back Sterling recovered
somewhat and the strength In this ex-
change naturally brought about re-
coveries In other exchanges