The sun., 1919-10-19
FINANCIAL NEWS
AND COMMENT
Movements in Speciality Issues
Continue to Be Special
Market Feature.
STEEL STOCKS ARE HEAVY
Bank Statement Shows More
Improvement in Reserve
Position.

with very few exceptions yestsrday's
short session OF the stock market had
the same sort Of speciality movements
that have been enjoyed By the wan
Street trading community during all OF
last week There was the same heavy
buying OF motor. leather. chemical. mo-
tor accessory and individual stocks that
distinguished the trading on Friday. IL
anything. the movement embraced q
wider variety Of special issues than has
been seen heretofore. This was very
pleasing to those who thought that they
saw Indications OF general resumption
OF the buying movement in 20 FAR as the
standard stocks were concerned, but ac-
tualiy this was suggestive Of nothing
more than further shifting around OF
commitments from the standard stocks
into the specialtles on account Of money
considerations This was very clearly
demonstrated again by the continued
heaviness Of such stocks az Steel COM
mon and othe' high priced industrials
and by the buoyancy which Character
/ lied the rest Of the list.
There was no special news OF import
ance to influence the trading The over
night developments In connection with
the Presidents condition only went TO
confirm what Wall Street had learned
before the close OF business on the day
! before and no attention whatever was
paid 20 the local port strike. For the
most part the continued enthusiasm IN
the specialties eeerned TO be due to moth
Ing more than the markets own momen-
tum and to the fact that there was no
good reason. 20 far as the news was con-
cerned. why the advancing movement
should not be continued. There being
no money market yesterday, Wall Street
n In hfu
ton. but. II there had been, the improve
ment which was noted In the last hour
OF the preceding days session undoubt-
Z edly would have been encouraging
enough 70 have overshadowed this There
/ was nothing significant In the weekly
trade publications. They continued to
report Improvement In business, notvlth-
standing the strike situation. but this ex-
/ erted no special influence on the market
| that Is TO say. go far as the standard
| stocks we're concerned. The Interest
was wholly In the specialties, which led
| the rest Of the list In the volume of &C
| tivity and from the viewpoint of price
changes.
The only manner perhaps in which yes
terday's market differed from that of the
| preceding day was that most of the
activity centred in the so-called truck
stocks instead OF in the stocks OF COM
| panies which make nothing but pas
| senger cars The two leading Issues in
this respect we're Pierce Arrow and
White Motors. both OF WIN ch sold to new
high Records The activity here naturally
Influenced the accessory stocks. Bosch
Magnetic again gave a very good ao-
| count Of itself. considering the sharp ad-
vance which II scored on the preceding
day. Likewise there was a good deal OF
| activity In the feathers. Hide and
| Leather made further improvement and
Feo did Endicott-Johnson. The latter. how
| ever. eased of at the closing. In the
tobacco ground there were indications OF
| a renewal of speculative interest. Amer
| lean Tobacco sold back to near its prev
| lous high record and there was strength
in United Retail. Otherwise. however.
the market was pretty much neglected.
The steel stocks, while holding their own
as well as could be expected, d d nothing
at any stage Of the session and neither
did any Of the other steels. The rails
were neglected, also.
The bank statement disclosed fur
Their Improvement In the reserve position.
as was indicated by the easing OF money
In the last hour OF Fridays session. The
! increase in reserve amounted to about
sl1,5OO, 900 and brought the aggregate
reserve up to approximately $4,000. 00U.
which the first time in several weeks
that the reserve item has been as favor
able as this. Another very satisfactory
feature Of the bank statement was a
I decrease In loans amounting to about
| 500. 900 900. This reflected the decrea Sc
| in speculation In the standard shares
during the week and the further shifting
Of interest into the speclalties and motor
shares Weakness In sterling was again
. the principal feature OF the foreign ex-
change market Francs. on the other
hand, however. were quiet strong, no
doubt on account OF the publication OF
! the story that new French Cities loan
would be foated here during the COMING
week. otherwise there was nothing OF
| Intnreef in the AYchanRea