Evening star., 1920-03-12
|SPEC|A[T|ES LEAD
STRONG MARKET
BY STUART p, WEST,
Special CofreHpondent NJ The

Special Correspondent Of The Star.
WALL STREET, N. Y, March IL
The professional element continued
this morning to work for a reaction
in the market. basing their attitude
first upon the very considerable rise
which had occurred since the end of
February. and second upon the ex-
pectation that money rates would
stiffen over the period of the income
tax payments.
During the greater part Of the day,
however. EFFORTS to get prices down
met with scant success. For one thing
there were again too many strong
points among individual stocks for
any general sentiment on the selling
side to be encouraged
For another thing, the money mar
ket did not fit in at all with the plans
of the bear party The renewal rate
on call loans. instead of running up
as had been looked for. remained at
7 per cent. and it was not until to-
ward the end of the session, when
end had been completed. that any
symptoms of hardening appeared
Oils Are Leaders.
The low priced oils were the lead
ers at the start with Middle States.
Sinclair and Transcontinental Oil the
favorites. Then American Tobacco
securities was taken up. and follow
ing this the motor accessory issues,
Stromberg, Bosch Magnetic and the
rest. Industrial Alcohol. Chandler
Motors. Freeport Texas, Columbia
~ r.
the specially type were brought for
ward one after the other
The confidence displayed in these
clique stocks was significant of the
attitude of the shrewd pool managers
toward the market position in gen
eral. Superficially. there was heavi-
ness in some of the recent faVorltes
of the steel. equipment and motor
group. but it was only superficial.
Readiness to Buy. ."
There was very little real selling
and an entire readiness to buy when
ever prices were offered down at all.
Railway shares were inclined to sag
off but were not at all weak. There
was good buying Of Great Northern
preferred. Northern Pacific and other
standard issues.
The market at first was inclined to
pay some attention to the sharp re-
action in sterling exchange which at
one time was off cents in the pound
from last nights close. But later in
the day sterling rallied across $40
again and the incident was dismissed
from stock market calculations.
Low-Priced Oils.
When the average Wall street trad
er read his morning paper and saw
that the local price of gasoline was
going to jump to 80 cents. and this
following yesterdays striking dem
onstration in the Standard Oil spe-
cialties on the curb, he came down
town decidedly bullish on the oils. but
more particularly upon the low-priced
members of this group because they
had had the least advance and would
be likely to stand up better in case of
a general market reaction. Sinclair
had begun to show toward the close
last night.
To many who lay great stress by
chart indications it was very sig
nificant when the stock was strong
enough to push through AZ. The in
depreciation of this was that a new
with Sinclair is that it still has to
face the report for 1919, which will be
none too good. But the present cam
paign in the stock Is based upon pres
ent and future earnings rather than
upon past results and Sinclair is get
ting 25 cents a barrel more for its
product than it was even at the start
of the year.
AS pointed out here. Transcontinen-
tai is now emerging from the develop
ment stage and is beginning to show
earning power which is estimated at
close to sl.000,000 a month. 1t is in a
much stronger position than it was
when the stock was selling twice as
high Middle States Oil swung along
with the others and went up very
easily.