The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-07-19
FINANCIAL NEWS Z
AND COMMENT
Heaviness and Pressure Still
Are Characteristic Of Stock
Market.
PRICES STRONGER AT END
Motors Are Leading Features
Of Session and TobaccOs
Hold Ground.
PRICES STRONGER AT END

Heaviness and pressure continued 10
characterize the stock market through
out the best part OF yesterdays session.
but the indications were that the SELL
ing was rather unirnportant. Apparent
ly II represented a miscellaneous assort-
ment of profit taking and other selling
pressure which had been left over from
the preceding day. for the market turned
very much stronger in the last hour.
and II is a fair inference that II there
had been any real alarm in so far as
the underlying financial situation was
concerned the selling would have been
continued to the closing. AS It turned
out, however. stocks came back with a
degree OF ease. and although they had
displayed acute weakness during the
early part Of the day. closed with i'm
portant improvements in some cases
This was particularly true Of the motor
stocks. which were rather exceptions to
the selling throughout the session.
While they reacted along with the rest
Of the market at the outset, their losses
In nearly all cases were fractional. 49,
Just as was the case on the preceding
day, there was no real news to influence
the selling. The whole thing seemed to
be due to a realization on the part Of
the speculative public that the market
was going ahead too fast. The result
OF this withdrawal of support was an
other weak session throughout the first
three hours, a market which gave the
professional traders the FIRST opportunity
they have had in some time to make
progress on the selling side. The fact
that they were successful. however, was
due entirely to the fact that there were
a number OF highly speculative issues in
which the technical situation had been
greatly weakened by reason Of the re-
cent advance. In these directions the
losses were rather severe, that is to
say they ran from ! to as much as
5 points and more, but In the standard
rails and industrials the resistance was
more stubborn. and at best traders were
only able to depress the issues slightly
Even at that they recovered most all OF
their earlier losses before the closing.
This was the most gratifying feature Of
the trading. for 1t showed that the
buying power which has characterized
the market all the way up was still
present. and that, generally speaking.
the Street was still In a constructive
frame of mind.
The fact that the motor shares hap
pened to be the strongest features Of the
session occasioned good deal OF sur
prise in some quarters, but It was not
very surprising to experienced observers
who have watched with great interest
the action of these issues for several
days past, and who at the same time
realized that the short interest had been
increased rather than decreased OF late
The result was that when the profess
SIGNALS started to cover they found a
very small floating supply of sstocks de-
spite the weakness Of the rest of the list
Studebaker in particular was strong. but
the strength of this group was by no
means confined to any one issue. The
tobaccos were also rather exceptions to
the rule in that they held their ground
somewhat better than the rest Of the
market But such issues as Crucible
Steel, Baldwin and Bethlehem Steel ex-
perienced rather sharp declines. and 50
did the rest OF the minor industrtals.
Steel common held relatively better than
most issues again. but II was distinctly
weak during the first hour or SO. The
speciality stocks were no exceptions to
the rule in 30 far as the weakness was
concerned but as in case of most Of the
other stocks they showed tendency to
come back at the close.
The money market was still unsettled
in the sense that money rates on all in
dustrial loans were still very high. that
is to say they ruled above per cent all
day. There was much discussion In the
financial community with respect to the
large Increase In brokerage loans. Some
Of the estimates placed the total at the
present time as high as $500, 100000,
which is not surprising in view Of the
large speculation which has been expert
enced of late and in view OF the tre-
mendous advance which has taken place
in the main speculative position. At the
same time this increase was viewed as
a cause for selling stocks, but this was
not the view held in most houses. where,
however, it is realized that the best thing
that could happen to the market In the
Immediate future would be a slowing
down in the pace of trading. The foreign
exchange market continued erratic. but
1. was very much stronger. Sterling
came back sharply and so did most OF the
other rates, but there was no significance
in this 1t merely reflected large