Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-09-24
BEARSSEARCHFOR
THE WEAK SPOTS
Find Coppers, Tires and Food
Shares Susceptible to
Pressure.
By STUART p. WEST.


NEW YORK. September a Especially
wall street came down to business
this morning prepared to have an
other held day on the short side OF
the industrials. The nation wide price
cutting campaign played up at length
on the FIRST pages of the newspapers
furnished. of course. the text Of the
pear party. and search was fmme-
diately instituted for weak spots on
the industrial list that could be ex-
plotted on the talk Of price reductions
and consequent slump in profits.
The most important contribution to
the trade news of the day was the
ers, which has long been expected In
lowering official prices. Actually what
trading has been done for the last
fortnight or more in the copper mar
ket has been at the lower price level.
But it was not until today that the
principal concerns were willing to
formally admit the unfavorable eondi-
tons existing by marking down their
list prices to 1SA cents a pound
Drive on Csppers.
This action naturally resulted in q
sharp drive against the whole copper
and smelling group under which Utah.
Anaconda and American Smelung
broke rather violently. Encouraged
by the success in this direction. bear
the tire group and were able, in the
absence Of any effective support, to
force a very severe decline in most
of these stocks.
Kelly Springfield. especially sensi :
tive because Of the new financial plan.
with it's offer Of $4,000 new shares,
was down at one time over points.
The pressure did not extend to the
motor group, although Studebaker. at
it's bottom figure, was down another
point. 1t rather loked as If advantage
was being taken of the weakness in
terest in the motor stocks, which, ac-
cording to all indications, had be-
come very large. Food stocks also
had a sinking spell on the idea that
the price cutting would hit them. too.
MonODelise weakness.
These three groups-the coppers. the
tires and the food shares-monopo-
The difference between the market
today and that Of previous days of
the week was that the uncovering of
these individual weak spots did not
unsettle, as it had been doing. the
greater part of the industrial section.
began to appear almost Immediately.
Oil Group Supported.
The first group to stand out was the
Mexican oils, and their action proved
that the main attitude toward these
stocks had not been changed, that the
contention of oil production having
overtaken demand had been invented
for speculative purposes and that
there had been no important liQuida-
ton in the drop of to 10 points
which these oil shares have had from
their high.
Baldwin Locomotive, the steel
stocks and the sugars also acted very
differently from the outset, and as the
day went on their course indicated
plainly an oversold condition.
The speculative rank and file which
always shapes its opinion according
to the stock tape and which a week
ago was extremely bullish, had after
five days of declining prices become
just as violently bearish.
1t was not surprising therefore that
the market should have shown the in
creasing resistance it did today.
In the railway stocks there was
more uneasiness. A few new ad-
vances occurred, notably in Colorado
and Southern. the ST. Pauls. the Lake
Erie and Western issues, Toledo, St
Louis and Western and Chicago and
Alton. but as 4 rule the junior rails
did not have the same snap they had
had on the other days. They had to
take a good deal more profit taking.
and while this selling was not pressed
SO as to bring about any real weak
ness. it was sufficient to check the
upward tendency for the time being.
Big Feature Of Day.
Had not the street been so COM
plete1y absorbed with the commodity
price-cutting it might have paid more
attention to what was the really big fea-
ture Of the day, namely, the continued
and very remarkable recovery in lib
erty bonds. Inasmuch as the down.
ward movement in libertys was one
of the most upsetting things in the
entire financial depression during the
first half of the year. it is hard to
overestimate the significance Of this
improvement.
1t not only bears the strongest pos
sible witness to the improvement in
the investment situation. but it will
tend as nothing could do to change
public sentiment toward financial at