New-York tribune., 1920-12-15
Stocks Recover
From Slump as
Tone Improves
Spirit of Traders Rallies
i'll Proportion as Prices
Advance: Commodities
Reflect Plans for Aid

RlteT tNe recent peIlOU Oh oHAI y US-
cines in security prices to the lowest
levels of the year, the technique Of the
market place Yesterday set in motion
counteracting forces. Not only was
the downward movement checked, but
a subs tantiAl recovery was made before
the end OF the session. Although the
drastic effects of dehation On the imam
cal and Industrial structure of the
country has induced timidity i'll many
quarters, the spirit Of traders I'M
proved yesterday in. proportion AS quo
tations turned higher.
The upward swing in prices was not
confined to the SECURITY mart. Cotton
and grain quotations surged upward,
and the leading foreign exchanges were
firm.
In the commodity exchanges the
passage in the Senate of the resolu-
ton directing the Secretary of the
Treasury to revive the War Finance
Corporation. was looked upon as de-
velopment helpful to prices. In bank
ing quarters there was some feeling
that the President might veto this
Congressional order, yet. whether
financial aid for exporters comes from
this governmental body or from
private corporations formed under the
Edge act, there are Indications that
better organized efforts in this direc-
tion are about to be made. The cam
paign of the American Bankers Cor
poration, which has resulted in prof.
ect to create S100,O0O,000 Edge law
corporation, with lending power up
to ,000,000,000, has tended to focus
banking attention to the problem, and
now seems about due to yield practi-
cal results. The rally in the cotton
market after Mondays precipitate
drop was largely a result of short
covering and trade buying, and carried
though the early advances were not
fully retained, grain prices, helped by
the developments in the matter of
forging new instruments of foreign
fins.lcing, rose from Ia cents to 3A
cents bushel, and corn quotations,
sensitive to similar influences, spurted
from " to 1ss cents:
The expression of the speculative
mind through the various exchanges
was hampered by storms which inter-
rupted wire service from various places
ing Stock Exchange firm, however, COM
municated with Chicago by wireless,
setting a new Wall Street precedent.
In spite of the difficulty in transmit
ting orders from the interior, yester-
days stock market was large, both in
total transactions and in the huge
number of securities bought and sold.
The days business, though unusually
heavy, was smaller than on Monday,
which was the busiest trading day of
the autumn.
From Mondays prices, which in the
case of industrial stocks marked the
Go,
rebound was impressive. The average
of thirty representative industrial
stocks rose from 71.57 to 1890 and
that of twenty rails leaped up from
81 05 to 62.70. Railroad bonds likewise
moved upward, but industrial bonds,
which on Monday had made new low
record for the year, tended lower. Tea
industrial bonds used for the compila-
tion of the Tribune averages dropped
from 8263 to 1888. The investmen.
market did not respond to the influ
cnces of recovery as rapidly as the
stock market did.
One factor which definitely aided
stock prices was the lifting of the spe-
cial selling press' re from individuals
and corporations who tossed securities
into the market place in order to get
cash with which to pay the fourth in
stalment to-day on their Federal
taxes. Monday was the last day that
sales could be made regular to yield
funds in time to meet this need,
and the number cash transactions
made for this same purpose yesterday
appeared relatively slight. Although
large turn-overs Of funds will take
place in the money market day, call
funds were available at the Stock Ex-
change at per cent all through the
session.
The Treasury to-day expects to pay
out throughout the country $l10O00,-
! 900 in interest on the first Liberty
bonds and the Victory notes. OF this,
$45,000,000 will be distributed in the
New York district. Moreover, S703,
600, 900 Of certificates of indebtedness
will mature, of which 1924, ,l89, 900 will
fall due in this district. However, ar
rangements made by the Federal Re-
serve Bank here with regional banks
in other districts and exchanges Of
maturing certificates for those Of the
new issue now being offered will re-
duce the amount actually paid out in
this district to $2O0,000,000. The last
payment of taxes, according to esi-
mates, will yield between $3.50, 1000, 900
and S800,000,000, Of which one-third
will be collected in this district.
After an early slump in the market
yesterday, in which new loans were
made for some stocks, the recovery set
in. During the second hour of trad
ing, there was a temporary setback,
but thenceforth the movement was up
ward. The early weakness was at
tributcd to the closing out of accounts
of traders whose margin had been i'm