The New York herald., 1920-01-25
STOCK MARKET
NEWS AND REVIEW
Prices of Shares Generally Ad-
vance on Urgent Covering
by Short Interests.
CRUCIBLE STEEL THE LEADER
Bears Renew Attack on Motors Early
in Vain Attempt to Check
the Bulls.
CRUCIBLE STEEL THE LEADER

Official announcement soon after the
opening of the stock market yesterday OF
the new financial plan of the Crucible Steel
Company. involving distribution Of. the
accumulated profits of the corporation
was the signal for a sharp drive agains,
the overextended short interest The
outcome was general advance in prices
In the course of which several Issues, par
ticularly Crucible Steel itself. were carried
movement The tone Of the trading al
the close was decidedly strong The vol
ume Of business although not extraordin-
arily large increased considerably, as conf
pared with corresponding period of time
on Friday. The public. however, again ad-
hered to its role of spectator.
At the outset the bears, rendered ner-
vous by the firmness OF the market on
Friday, in the face of the drastic advance
Of discount rates, and by the overnight
news of the coming announcement of
Crucible Steel's recapitalization plan, made
another onslaught on the, motor group.
which they regarded as the weakest spot
in the market. Their efforts to break the
market. however. accomplished nothing
beyond a sharp decline in General
Motors. The bullsh division employ
ing Crucible Steel as its leader, coun-
tered with sensational demonstration in
the steel group. In the second hour the
bears were forced to capitulate. Then the
covering became general. The urgent
character of the buying was demonstrated
in the violent advances in those issues in
which it had been known that large short
interests existed.
AS before said, steels were easily the
best performers. United States Steel
gained almost one point, Bethlehem more
than point. Republic Steel was extreme
ly active and registered a net gain of
more than three points, while Sloss-Shef-
field had characteristic advance. Among
equipments Baldwin, American Locomo-
tive and American Car and Foundry were
all higher. In the oils Texas Company,
Mexican Petroleum and Royal Dutch were
features, all registering good gains Good
rich Rubber rallied from it's recent de-
preston. United States Rubber also was
higher, while American Woolen, Retail
Stores and Mercantile Marine common re-
sponded briskly, and even the motors not
only recovered their early losses but
ended the day with net gains.
Reviewing the days operations as a
whole indicated that the bear position
has became decidedly unstable. I'm
uouDtedly, however, several weak spots
will have to be Neradcated as progress
is made toward complete deflation. Bear
campaigners apparently are chargrined
because of their inability to dislodge long
stocks. Orders from uptown professional
quarters. where selling operations through
out recent weeks had been proved quite
successful. showed a distinct tendency
to revise ideas concerning the Immediate
trend of prices.
Allied exchange was weak again be-
cause Of the heavy offering of bills. Bel
gium francs and lire declined to new low
levels while German marks are now
quoted at less than IL cents.
The bank statement was disappointing
to persons who had expected further
Improvement. The banks reported de-
crease in surplus reserves of more than
$40, 900 900. reducing their excess to NOM
inal figures. Moreover, the Federal Re-
serve Bank reported another decrease in
its reserve ratio. It is quite evident that
the money market still is under serious
strain.