New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-22
Finance . Economics

The copper producers having day
by day reduced the price of their
product without melting folk to buy,
have nothing to lose by starting to
raise the price again. Consumers
might then think that the turn in
the market, for which they are hold
ing off, had come, and might start
clamoring for the metal. That is
Wall Streets way of selling stocks
to the outside public, and it seldom
fails.
The purchase of nearly ambition
shares on a day preceding double
holiday is something that any mar
ket may be proud of. Wall Street
calls them purchases and not sales,
because prices advanced again. 1t is
a further point of significance that
the volume of transactions in the
last two days has been the greatest
in nearly two months, and it is
worth recalling that the heavy trans
actions at the end of last year were
brought about mainly by the desire
Of Americas citizens to register tax
losses. 1t is true that the greatest
advances are in "specialties,' but
that is surely nothing rare in a ris-
ing market, and the standard issues
have been joining in. The tire and
rubber stocks advance for the best
-of all ons--demonstrated earn
ings. Profits in 1918 of $21 share
for Kelly-Springfeld Tire and of
500 for B. F. Goodrich, or twice
the amount of the year before,
represent only past performance;
but the past is certain, and it is
secure. AS for the rise in other
issues, skeptics complain that there
is no positive good news to warrant
it, bat only an absence of bad. Yet
Che market has been rising for only
one week, whereas it declined for
four months, good part of the
time in anticipation Of disaster that
never came.
The advance in the copper stocks,
following the publication of the
"porphyry" quarterly reports, is to
be accounted for in the same way as
the advance of Steel common after
the appearance of it's untitled ton
mage statement two weeks ago. 1t
was not that the reports were bet
ter than expected, but that too many
folk had sold copper stocks that they
did not own, in the expectation Of
their badness, and found to-day that
not enough actual holders of the
shares were discouraged into selling
to make up for the amount of stocks
that the short sellers were COM
mitted to buying. Utah Copper
earned only $2.O5 a share during the
last three months of 1918, compared
with $5.75 in the same three months
of the year before, while Ray Con-
solidated earned only 26 cents, COM
pared with S1.63, and Chino Copper,
which in the 1917 quarter earned
1852 a share, this time managed to
save for stockholders only cents a
, share.
PERHAPS more significant than
these figures were the expenses Of
the companies. 1t cost the Utah
Copper Company 1888 cents a
pound to produce copper during the
quarter year; it cost the Chino Cop
per Company 1910 cents, and it cost
Ray Consolidated 1906 cents.
What will this mean, with copper
now selling below II cents? Part of
the answer is that cost of produc-
ton will fall. Wages then on a
basis of rs to 80 cents a pound have
now been placed on basis of 10 to
20 cents pound. More important
still is the increase reported IN the
efficiency of the miners. But the
fall in the market price of copper
since December is known and GER
tain; the fall in cost of production
remains to he demonstrated