The sun., 1919-02-12
FINANCIAL NEWS
AND COMMENT
Trading in Stocks Is Quiet and
No Disposition Toward
Activity Is Evident.
SPECIALTIES SUSTAINED
American Can Rallies Sharply
and Foundries and Sugar
Show Improvement.

With an extra recess in prospect for
Streets indlspositlon to do much in Sc
curities was intensified yesterday. The
share list WAS rather firm throughout
the day and the trading was on a
| slightly more active scale, but as In
preceding sessions of late the stock mar
ket continued to be characterized by an
| utter absence of a rush to buy listed
securities. This showed continued
reluctance on the part of important
| financial interests toward entering the
! market on the constructive side In face
VI so many prevailing uncertainties.
| And, moreover. 1t showed that, not
| withstanding the fact that the readjust-
| ment Is supposed to have been pretty
well accomplished, the market at pres
ent Is depending mainly for its strength
! on short covering operations, which are
not very encoura ging from the view
point of those who have been expecting
a sustained Upward movement. At least
this was the case yesterday.
1t might have been reasonably sup
posed that some incentive for purchas-
ing stock could have been obtained from
the announcement of the new bond bill
In Washington on the day before. This
was step in the right direction, that
is to say from the Wall Street view
For one thing 1t was disappointing to
, Wall Street TO know that nothing had
been decided upon as to the terms. Still
| there were some satisfactory features
to 1t. particularly with respect to the
remarks of Secretary Glass as to busi-
Eess conditions and the indications that
the loan will be placed upon a purely
business, basis. which is what Wall
street has been advocating all along
But 1t would undoubtedly have pleased
the financial district more had Mr.
Glass announced that he had decided to
put the loan off altogether for the pres
ent, or at least until business conditions
have become more settled. There is a
well defined movement in Wall Street
to induce the Government to consider
some kind of short term financing for
the present instead OF another Liberty
Loan. but this apparently is not max
ing very much Roadway in Washington.
| The strongest period OF the day was
! at the outset, when further short cover
ing developed. The strength continued
until about midday. when 1t was discov-
cred that no great amount of buying
power was forthcoming upon which tho
advance could be sustained. Interest
then died out and trading turned dull
except in specialties Among those
which continued TO hold well in face
of the dulness elsewhere were the
sugars, the oils and minor industrials.
American Can. which had been driven
down quite sharply on Monday. rallied
sharply on the publication OF its annual
! report There was, furthermore, q fur
| Their upturn in American Steel Foun-
dries. American Sugar made another
| improvement in response to reports of a
favorable dividend announcement short
! ly, while Distllers was we'll bought In
anticipation of the publication of the
annual report next week. Otherwise
the market was quiet and unimportant.
The steels as well as the coppers moved
within very narrow range throughout
the session, and although sustaining
their strength fairly well failed to at
tract any considerable attention from
the speculative element
The money market was slightly easier
for the best part of the day notwith-
standing further Withdrawals OF Gov
eminent funds from the banks and prep
aration to meet the payment o. the
$500, 900. 900 certificates OF Indebtedness
on Thursday. The foreign exchange
market was quiet and generally easier.
especially SO far as neutrals were con-
Concerned. The bond market was firm,
except in the case OF Liberty bonds.
The Fourth Az made their usual low
record of the day. The weakness OF
these issues was influenced somewhat
BY the announcement of the bond bill
and by the Indications that the new
bonds will be issued on a strictly bust
ness basis. The selling was not espe-
cially heavy. however. but 1t overtaxed
the absorbing capacity.