Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-06-29
DRAGGING MARKET,
WITH SOME LOSSES
Sugar Shares Adjusted to
Market for Product-LoW-
Priced Rails.
BY STUART p. WEST.

NEW YORK, June 29.-The market
| dragged along today through another
listless and wholly unimportant ses
| sion. 1t was repetition of yester-
days extreme dullness. with prices
| showing an inclination to sag through
sheer inertia.
1t has always been the history of
| markets of this sort that the heaviness
apparent from day to day is merely
| superficial, and that such losses as oc-
| cur are very easy to retrace in case
| the dull spell is finally broken by some
genuinely inspiring news. But In the
meantime there was today. as there
had been yesterday. just enough sell
| ing by the proverbal tired holders" to
| make some impression.
There were comparatively few
points of strength and quite a num-
ser of weak points among individual
stocks.
| The deal for an alliance or union
of the chemical companies is one of
those merger negotiations which viii
be conveniently off and then on again
to suit the needs of the speculative
situation. Barrett Company and Ma
tional Aniline stocks having had
very considerable rise, were ripe for
a reaction. and it was easy to allege
as q canse for their decline that the
deal between these properties had
encountered serious hitch. When
the reaction has gone far enough we
hhall doubtless hear that these diff
culties have been smoothed away and
that the deal is on again.
The sugar stocks were another
group that were under pressure,
Cuban American breaking so and
Punta Allegro breaking par. Their
decline represented further adjust
ment of the market for the sugar
stocks to the decline in the price of
sugar itself, which amounts to an
taverage of cents in the pound from
the recent high.
LOw-Prfced Rails
| The position in the low-priced rails
| is somewhat mixed. There is an ele-
ment of weakness about it in the fact
| that so many people have been bull
! ish. Nearly every brokers' letter for
| the last two months has talked up
| this class of stocks and little specu-
| lators have felt that they could not
possibly lose by buying them.
/ Consequently there is undoubtedly a
| weak long interest, and should by
any chance the Interstate Commerce
Commission not grant the full amount
| of the increase in rates expected, this
weakness would be sure to show.
! On the other hand, along with lot
of poor speculative buying there is
i a certain amount of fairly reliable
evidence of more important accu-
mutation going on in these junior
rails.
| AS was pointed out in this column at
| the time the Gould estate. needing
| the money, had to unload quite lot of
| Missouri Pacific preferred and st. Louis
Southwestern common. This Gould
[ liquidation, in the latter. amounted to
about 5000 shares. carrying the price
down from around 13 to H. At the lat
ter figure the stock was all taken and
those in position to observe the char
acter of the buying rated it as ex-
tremely good. In Missouri Pacific pre-
ferred the indications are that banking
interests identified with the property
have been picking the stock up for some
time and that they were the principal
buyers of what the Gould estate threw
on the market between AZ and 80.
New York Bonds.
Liberty bonds continued to sag to-
day. with further losses of 20 to 80
cents in the various issues. The big
trading in the Anglo-French 5s was
at 99M and in the United Kingdom 1as
of 1921 at 97A. The Belgian 7ks.
which yesterday pushed through 50.
maintained this advance, and increased
| it slightly. The Swiss government
SIS broke sharply on the announce
der negotiation, although the details
have not yet been fixed upon. These
Swiss SIS have come down very stead
lily from SO in January to 82k. Ma
turing in 1929, they are thus selling on
better than an 81s per cent basis.
This fact will have to be taken into
account in agreeing upon the terms
of the new issue. 1t will hardly be
possible with the 5ks where they
are now to float a new Swiss loan on
better terms than were secured for
the Belgian loan, namely, a tx per
cent bond offered to the public at
97k.
weakness in the Pennsylvania rail-
road general SIS was a feature, these
bonds, which were quoted yesterday
at 80, changing hands at 821s today.
Brooklyn Rapid Transit Is sold at
40h as against the last previous sale
at Al, but the Third Avenue Adjust
ments were higher at 211k.
That the changes in the Mexican
situation have decidedly improved the
market for Mexican securities has
been proved within the last few days
by the readiness with which the Mex
lean government external As were
taken when they were offered down to
26h These bonds sold at that figure
yesterday and today sold at 27A.