Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-03-22
STEEL ANDOHSLEAD
ON NEW YORK CHANGE
Trade in Extraordinary Vol.
ume for Saturday Session.
Baldwin in Demand
stock sales today on the New York
Exchange totaled 584, 800 shares.

New York.. March 22.-New York
Evening Suns financial review for to-
day follows
Trading was in extraordinarily large
volume in today's stock market for a
Saturday half session. There was a
rush of buying at the opening. which
carried prices forward under the leader
ship Of the steel shares in general and
United States Steel in particular, which
pushed to and through par for the
first time this year. At least a third
of the turnover in the first hour con-
sisted of steel transactions. Baldwin
Locomotive and Railway Steel Spring
were in brisk demand also. The coppers
did pretty well.
The oils were somewhat higher early,
but a reaction which set in quickly as
sumed rather broader proportions than
elsewhere in the list. Strong spots In
cluded American Can. Goodrich, the
feathers and Brooklyn Rapid Transit,
which apparently has discounted about
the worst that can happen now in the
traction situation.
Interborough Rapid Transit dropped
below 4, but both that and the preferred
rallied and later held in good style.
The violent covering movement seemed
to have brought out stop orders which
accelerated the upward swing BY the
end of the first hour, however the most
urgent buying was finished and trading
quieted down relatively. The rails failed
to make any material response to the
$100.000,000 advanced to the railroad
administration by the War Department
on account of transportation bills due.
The steel situation continued to be the
governing influence on the constructive
side. Judge Gary's statement that the
price cuts for steel products represented
the minimum for the balance of 1919
was accepted as the signal that buying
in that industry should begin, and IL
others made similar progress, there
progress and prosperity in the near
future"
The feature in foreign exchange was
the sharp break in sterling rates to
$3.50 the pound sterling. which is only
.12 cents above the sensational low
touched in September, 1915. Francs re-
acted two centimes to 5.73 francs to the
dollar and lire lost 80 points to 7.52 lire
TO the dollar. Neutral rates were like
. wise easier within narrower limits
Steel ruled fractionally below par in
the second hour and there as well as in
the remainder Of the list there was less
definite trend than earlier. American
Hide and Leather preferred was one
of the few outstanding strong features.
The paper and oil groups continued un-
der pressure. Interborough Rapid Tran
sit per cent bonds partly recovered
from a loss of point or SO, and Inter-
borough Metropolitan 41a $ made slight
gain on the day. Liberty Loan issues
were bit soft
While business revival has as yet
scarcely reached the stage of general
resumption, the trade journals pretty
. we'll agree that operations are slowly
widening, particularly in textiles There
is less anxiety over the labor situation
and in some sections the increase in
unemployment has been checked.
"The fact that certain leading
branches" says Dun, such as the steel
industry, still fail to reflect recovery
tends to divert attention away from the
betterments in some other directions, as
in textiles"
Bradstreet says: while evidence of
caution in buying abounds and sales
especially of textiles, are still below a
year ago in value, there has seemed to
be some growth in the belief that prices
as whole. at least for spring. are not
to suffer the wholesale cuts which were
earlier predicted"
Bank clearings for the week totaled
S7,6O6,7 ,043, against $6,729,540,151
last week and $5,929,661,893 in this
week last year.