The sun., 1919-05-22
FINANCIAL NEWS
AND COMMENT
Disappointment Over Marine
Deal Causes Market to
Become Weaker.
MOST STOCKS SHOW LOSS
Higher Priced Oils, as Excep-
ton to Tendency Of List,
Hold Their Ground.
MOST STOCKS SHOW LOSS

There were two main influences be-
hind the decline in prices on the Stock
Exchange yesterday. One was the weak
ness OF the technical situation in the
main speculative position and the
other was the disappointment over the
terms Of the Marine deal, as announced
by The directors at the close of bust
ness on the preceding day. The Sec
ond obviously provided the most I'm
portant speculative consideration Of the
day. Instead of turning out to be a
pleasant surprise, as every one In the
financial community had anticipated, Il
now appears as though there 10 oonsId-
cradle question In financial circles as to
the. advisability Of entering into any
such arrangement as has been finally
concluded by the officials OF the COM
pany. The bulk OF the days losses
were recorded in the last two hours of
trading, but the session throughout the
day was an extremely unsatisfactory hf-
fair and most stocks-that IL to say,
will, the exception OF some of the higher
priced oils, lost ground from the outset.
All Of this naturally provided q rather
severe test for the weakened technical
position Of the general market. Tho
markets answer to this test was not rs
satisfactory as II has been in similar
eases In the immediate past, but there
were still number of individual stocks
which held up we'll in spite Of the sell-
Ing pressure elsewhere and which at
the same time indicated that they had
lost none Of their favor so far a. the
tracing fraternity was concerned. But
by far the greater number Of speculative
issues were plainly under the influence
OF heavy profit taking and other selling
pressure and in the main the standard
issues seemed to give ground more
readily than they have atsany other
time for the past month or more. This
suggested the likelihood of a subsequent
reaction on the selling side. Yet at the
close 1t did not appear as though the
Wall Street trading fraternity had the
least intention of following up the ad-
vantages gained as a result of yester-
days decline Whatever the reason for
this. there was no mistaking the change
in sentiment yesterday, which seemed to
be several degrees more conservative
than 1t was bullish at the same time
last week. IL such a comparison IL Dos
sible.
Nevertheless there were some groups
of stocks which held their ground con-
siderably better than did the general
run of stocks. Those included for the
most part all Of the oil shares, which
have experienced rather severe setbacks
heretofore. and the food shares, in which
the speculation has not been quite as vio-
lent as in some OF the other departments.
But the rest OF the market was definitely
weaker for the first time in a long while.
Steels lost ground, as did the equipments,
with the exception of Baldwin. which
provided another unusual exception t.
the general trend of the market. The
most sorry spectacle of all, however, were
the Marine shares. Most of the financial
community had come down convinced
that the announcement would stimulate
another active market In the stock, but
mad failed to look into the position of the
company after the various classes of
stock had been retired. That the. terms
were not as favorable as Wall Street had
anticipated was quite obvious from the
action OF the stock. The common broke
sharply as did the preferred, providing
signal for the setback in the rest of the
list
There was no change in the money sit
uaton. The market remained firm. as
1t was expected to do until the Govern
ment has had time to redeposit the re-
ceipts OF the loan payment back into tho
banks. But II there was no change In
the money market. the action of foreign.
exchange more than made up for any
excitement that may have been lacking
here. All of the rates were weak again,
francs and lire making still further new
records. Sterling again experienced al
cratic day. moving within a range of
more than 3 per cent, which is rather
unusual for this particular exchange
That there Is need for an immediate
stabilizing plan for the exchange is quite
obvious. for 1t is plain that until some
thing OF this kind has been done there
can be very little international buiness Of
any kind carried on. The break in the
exchange has not yet exercised any great
influence on the stock market, but II Il
should go much further II is hard to ses
how It can fail to cause concern in all
financial circles