The sun., 1919-07-27
FINANCIAL NEWS
AND COMMENT
Market Is Strong and Active
as Week Of Indeterminate
Fluctuations Ends.
PRICES CLOSE NEAR TOP
Bank Statement Is Reflection
Somewhat of Reduction Of
Commitments.

A strong and active stock market
rounded out yesterday a week OF inde-
terminate price fluctuations and re-
minded bearishly inclined operators that,
despite the extent Of the advance In
prices In the last i've months, the short
side of the market was still dangerous.
Quotations wavered yesterday uncer-
tainly at the start, but gathered renewed
upward momentum with the progress of
the session and closed at or near the
| top. On an average prices went up
! 1 to points, but there were several
larger advances in the industrials. Tho
inside position of the market had as
much to do with the course OF prices as
| anything else. There was q more stub
born short interest in the market last
week than there had been at any time
since the advance commenced. Having
failed in its efforts TO lower prices ma
terially, that interest has been gradually
! covering as gracefully as possible, which
accounted for not little Of the strength
| displayed by stocks yesterday.
The departure of the Standard OIL Com
pany from the beaten paths it has been
following naturally aroused great interest
in stock market circles. The fact that
the company has selected the present as
an opportune time to solicit new capital
through an issue. of 500, 900 pre-
ferred stock Is evidence of the faith OF
| the banking community in the absorp-
tive capacity of the investment market.
which at present Is called on to raise
almost unlimited amounts Of capital
The Standard OIL project serves to en-
phasize the record demands for funds
being made In this market. Although
unusually large. the financing is only
one example of the steadily increasing
financial operations which the local
market Is demonstrating Its ability sue
cessfuliy to handle. All this naturally
has it's reflection in confident buying OF
listed securities, which must hold up as
long as important capital undertakings
proceed.
The action of the steel shares yester-
day provided the backbone of the
markets strength. United States Steel
climbed to 113K. at which level 1t was
| only a couple of points less than its top
figure of the year. Bethlehem Steel,
Crucible. Transue & williams made SUBJ
| stantial gains There was further
aggressive purchasing of the food
shares. Food Products leading with a
three point net gain. An advance of
IL y points by New York Dock reflected
pool buying on the theory that our
overseas trade will add to the earnings
Of that property. A new high was
recorded by Tobacco Products. The
rails, as usual, did very little. At yes
terday's final prices the industrials had
largely recovered the ground lost early
in the week, and in several cases moved
into new high ground.
The weekly bank statement to some
extent reflected reduction OF market
commitments and lessened demand for
accommodation which has been insisted
upon by the banks. The loan account.
in the actual form of the statement,
showed shrinkage of $97,054.0o0. while
surplus reserve increased 3.402. 900. De-
mand deposits decreased S106.354. 900,
and time deposits increased S14,000.0o0.
The foreign exchange market was gener-
ally weak. sterling, Ira, Belgian and
Scandinavian rates going lower.