Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-10-13
MONEY UNCERTAIN,
TRADING IS SLOW
BY STUART +. WEST.

WALL STREET, New York, October
1S-Asain today trading in stocks
was restricted by the uncertainty Of
the money movement. The rate Of
standing loans was marked up from
~ to s per cent, which meant the
highest in two months. There was
nothing disturbing about this very
moderate advance. Commercial bor-
rowers have been paying per, cent
and even more for a long while past,
and Wall street borrowers can do the
same withou, feeling that the situa :
ton is unduly tense. Still the street
wishes to feel satisfied that the hard
enins of rates will not go farther. =,
The main feeling is that after the
October Is liberty bond payments and
other drafts upon the available sup
ply of funds are out of the way, rates
market is inclined to wait for the next
few days to see whether this judg-
ment is correct or whether the higher
money level is really a reflection Of
the increased strain Of the crop NOV
ing demands and therefore is likely
to last.
Volume of BuAiness Kept Down.
The money uncertainty kept down the
volume of business to the standard Of
a dull market, but it did not produce
any fresh selling in the list as whole
There were again some special points
of weakness, as there have been right
along, but these We're connected with
causes quite outside OF the. money
market Moreover, these special points
OF weakness were by no means as nu-
merous as on other days. They were
more than matched by the strong spots
which developed among individual stocks
and groups of stocks. More than ever
did three quarters of the share list give
the impression Of being thoroughly sold
out.
The profit taking. which had been
going on in railway shares ceased and
they turned upward again under the
lead Of Reading, Southern Pacific,
New York Central and Nickel Plate.
| The buying in Reading was based on
the expectation that the segrega ton
plan would be published at any time
| now and, like that. OF the Delaware
! Lackawanna and. WESTERN would
/ show that the stocks of the company
! have been considerably undervalued
| where they have been selling until
| recently. With Reading across PAL
again all the other rails picked up.
Features Of the Market.
; The market did not feel the Cuban
! sugar troubles and the correlated de.
preston in Holland to the extent il
had on Monday. Sugar stocks rallied
| on the announcement that some OF
the principal Cuban banks would no,
take advantage OF the moratorium de.
clared by the government. There was
| some selling Of the mercantile marine
| stocks.
The special weakness which devel.
oped in the coppers has long beer
| anticipated as a part of the genera
| market readjustment. The coppers
were one group which had evidentl,
not aligned themselves to the extent
they ought with the lower price lev.
els prevailing in their trade. Toda =,
| dealers were reported to be Offering
the copper metal at 1864 cents a
pound, which represented not only
the lowest figure of the year. bu,
the lowest since the spring of 1919.
The United Fruit Company is one
Of the sugar producers which wa:
not stampeded by the big Jump il
the selling price of refined sugar
| early in the year. and. unlike sew.
eral other concerns, it did not specu.
late in the commodity. Therefore, tn,
company at this time is able to show
pr, fits on it's sugar which will come
closer to those figured earlier in tn.
year than several other large com.
panies which have had to take sever,
losses since. the collapse of the sugar
market. :.
The cables reported that Amster
dam liquidation on the London ex
change had s1ackened. Apparently
the collapse in sugar hit Dutch inter
ests hard enough to bring on the gen
eral unsettlement in Dutch industrial
conditions which has long been i'm
} pending.