The Washington herald., 1920-01-25
STOCKS SHOW
RESISTANCE
Motors Group Exception,
Giving Way Under
Pressure.


sion of the stock market today had
little in 1t to attract interest. Aside
from forward movement in the
steel group under the leadership of
crucible. price changes were variable
within a restricted range. Crucible
was run up some 10 points following
publication of the plan for new
financing. Lackawanna. Sloss-Shef-
field and Bethlehem B made good re-
Spouse. United States Steel. while
firm within fractional limits, was OBJ
Niously held bacsl in anticipation OF
an adverse report OF the epnings for
the last quarter of 1919 to be issued
Tuesday of next week. There were
numerous strong spots throughout
the industrial list but the market as
r a whole was too listless to be re-
garded as significant of any particu-
lar influence. Rails held barely steady
in a very light turnover.
After a monetary setback. new i'm
petus was impaired to the demand
for steel shares in the second hour
Crucible pushed through pa and Re
public Iron and Steel crossed Ill. The
movement served TO enliven trading
IN other issues more or less. particu-
larly the Oil descriptions. where gains
OF or points or so were recorded
The. entire motor group was still
under pressure and General Motors
was pounded to new lows on the
decline at 293$4. This is a loss of
113 from the high of last October.
Studebaker sold down to 1OOh.
Chandler stood up best among the
the motors. Controlling interests
n Nhar lar
with business on books and in sight.
the company should earn $50 a share
on the present capital in 1920 after
all taxes are deducted
Equipment shares showed an in
clination to advance and Baldwin
made an early high at I13H.
The whole list jumped forward in
late trading. While in actual num-
Der of points gained CrucibIe was
the leader. the heaviest traded of
steels was Republic. This stock ad-
vanced four points to II3. SIoss-
Sheffield was also in demand with
sales as high as So Motors rallied
all the way from one to three points
Tobacco products sold above %. and
Royal d was taken in big blocks
above los.
Equipments.
Never before in history have the
plants OF our various eduipments COM
panles been as active on real equip
ment production as at present. Read
Justments from wartime operations
have now been fully completed. and
various Of the large corporations are
using every effort to increase capacity
in order to take care of the present
large overflow of new business. I'm
hlled orders are of a magnitude as to
maintain capacity operations for
months to come. In fact most COM
panies are refusing new business from
abroad. not only due to foreign con-
dttions, but more so from the fact that
domestic demands are Imperative.
With the return of the railroads to
their former owners. with adequate
financial protection. producers of rail-
road equipment are going to find il
difficult to take care of the expected
forthcoming rush of orders. EQUIP
ment stocks are spoken of favorably
in speculative circles.
Pressed Steel Car.
Important developments are looked
forward to in the affairs of the
Pressed Steel Car Company. These
developments. il is said. will be ex-
ceptionally favorable to common stock
holders. Earnings are understood to
he running at a rate equal to some
so per share for the common. and
inasmuch as the company's surplus
has already reached large proportions,
il would not be surprising if direc-
tors advocated retiring the ST.
10000 per cent preferred stock in the
very near future.
Nanadium Steel shorts.
The situation in Vanadium Steel
bears close resemblance to conditions
in Sinclair Consolidated just before
the allotment of that company's latest
issue. The quotations of Vanadium
rights are higher than the proper
tionate value as shown by the figures
on the stock itself. This indicates the
presence of a short" interest. Selling
Vanadium under these conditions
may not prove as profitable as Sin
clair operations were.
The company has acquired some
properties which strengthen its hold
on the rare metals industry and re-
cent discoveries in the chemical field
have added to the value of Vanadium
as a product. These were formerly
owned by the Primos Chemical Com
pany and include refining plant in
Pennsylvania and molybdenum prop
critics in Colorado. The acquisition of
the additional assets should add about
81 10000 annually to Vanadium's earn
ings on present operations alone
With enormous increase in the use of
high speed steel. the prospects of
o.