The Washington herald., 1920-02-20

LEAD MARKET
how Gains of from Two to
SIX Points on Good
Buying.
bSUES HELD STRONGLY
|elief Prevails That Short
Interests Will
Suffer.
SUES HELD STRONGLY


ocks were buoyant all day to day.
usiness In the industrials was
urely incidental. The rails ad-
Rnced from two to six points.
ndard issues kept pace with the
priced ones. but the advance in
low-priced ones represented
Astly greater percentages of i'm
Fovement. While Southern moved
4A points from IS, st. Louis and
an Francisco moved up 5h
oints from 1sA, and Texas ad-
Anced 8 from ~. 1t was a field
ay for that large group of optim-
Is that has been buying the low
riced rails for months in anticipas
on Of Just such a development.
mere was no evidence that they
ere cashing in. for they believe
ne railroad market has just begun.
Brokers who have customers
mong all classes of people and
rom all parts of the country were
the opinion today that most or
pc buying was for short account.
hey admitted that they were car
5ing practically no railroad stocks
their offices. The stocks have
cen sold persistently for two
ears. and1-sre well placed among
he general pubic. Now that a sud
en- demand. has arisen for them,
here are mo- certificates for de-
very. -+E
The professional character of the
I1rket in the rails is shown by the
that In one very large COM
ssion house where thousands of
nares were purchased only 100
hares were bought for long ac-
punt The broker in question said
Is leading professional customers
hd sold railroad shares for months
order to participate in the in
frest derived from the borrowing
the stock. A frst-class customer
Is one-half the interest received
borrowed stock In these times
tight money brokers have been
fry glad to have responsible Gus
mers short of the rails. 1t was
sy money for both broker and
stomer but now the brokers are
atching the shorts as carefully as
fey were watching the longs a
onth ago.
Not everybody in Wall Street Is
lllish even on the railroads for
fere Is no assurance that Con-
fess will be able to pass the rail-
lad bill The clauses in the COM
omise measure relating to labor
Ill be sure to be bitterly attacked
both House and Senate. Even
the bill should pass IT is pretty
rtain that the labor unions
Ill go to court over 1t. So the
ftisticians may be figuring in vain.
here is no dispute as to what the
hrnings will be according to the
wv but first the law must be passed.
Segregation stories are already
toat and Reading is expected to
the 11rst to make an official
pouncement. This stock acted
put the best of any today. 1t was
fegation talk. that caused move
ents in stocks, of the rails that
bTn oil lands as for instance South
IN Pacific, Union Pacific and Texas
nd Pacific.
In the midst of the excitement
|ser the railroads Wall Street over
Poked the fact that foreign trade
pr January has shown a marked
ecrease- The exports are down
barply and the imports are ad-
hnced. This will tend to strength
b the foreign exchange situation,
|ut il will also tend to complicate
be commercial situation. There
Re many millions. perhaps billions
commodities held by speculative
Ierchants both for exports and for
Their bankers are
Fessing them for payment and the
|erchants cannot pay If the stuff
bnnot be sold except at a loss.
hey are unwilling to accept the
|nall loss but will be compelled
accept much larger ones when
be volume of foreign imports be-
bmes impressive.