The New York herald., 1921-11-24
FINANCIAL NEWS
AND COMMENT
Bond Trading Heavy-Liber-
tys Advance-StOck Mar
ket Is Irregular.


pletely overshadowed the other financial
markets. their turnover on the New
York Stock Exchange being one of the
largest of the year. with the tone Of
prices decidedly firm. Liberty 31a per
cents sold at their highest point of the
year and Victory 4%s in small denom-
nations again reached up to par. Buy
Ing. however. by no means centred In
Government bonds, but spread out into
the general railway and Industrial list.
been relatively few In recent weeks ap-
pearing on the tape. It could be argued
that strength of the Liberty 315 per
cent. issue, the only one completely ex-
empt from income tax imposts. was
brought about by persons Of large In
comes who believed that the chance of
super taxes being set with q maximum
Of less than SO per cent. was remote.
But II one were to contend that much
accumulation of bonds had been switched
from corporation to tax exempt Federal
issues by imminence of revenue law en-
actment It would be less clear why the
days operations in all sorts Of funded
securities was so heavy. The fact Of
bonds is not affected by casual influ-
ences. this being the indication from
many directions that money rates are
retreating.
The stock market did not amount to
much as an expression of speculative or
of investment sentiment. The familiar
process Of bidding UP particular special
ties occurred, some Of them rose point
to more than points. and there were
substantial advances Of preferred
shares which have been following the
lead of bonds for the last fortnight The
market had an irregular character
which showed that speculatofs were do
ing very little In advance of the holi-
day. Several sales-rather purchases
for cash were reported, evidently the
product of an impression that the new
| revenue law would make 1t less easy
than does the present law to sell and
depreciation from their original pur-
chase prices. The new bill, as inter-
preted In Wall Street, provides that
thirty or more days must intervene be-
tween the sale and repurchase Of a Sc
curity In order to satisfy the tax col
lector that a real loss was entailed in
the sale. If the bill as enacted into law
proves to have such provision It is
possible that cash sales will be frequent
as the end Of the month draws near.
judging from the volume Of selling for
tax record purposes in the last two
years.
Railroad reports for October received
during the day showed improvement iii
gross and net revenue. compared with
those of September. The Union Pacihcs
gross of $21,677,000 was several hun,
dred thousand dollars higher than 1t was
in the month before and its net in
creased close to s1.000.0O0. while the
Southern Pacific reported a gain of
$2.s0o.00o in gross and Of more than
s2,2oo.000 in net income. The latter
company was able, chiefly through cut
of nearly s5.o0o.o00 in operating ex-
penses. to convert a decline of $1.7s3.000
in gross revenue, as compared with
those Of October. 1920. into gain of
s1,559,000 in operating income.
Steel mill operations held UP during
the last week to the rate of those of the
preceding week and no indications that
there will be real decline for con-
siderable time to come appears. It is,
however. still debatable whether new
buying will expand soon. The pro-
ducers, according to the Iron Age, are
not so optimistic about broad freight
rate reductions as they were recently,
situation which has much to do with
costs and selling prices, to say nothing
about profits. FN
Cotton and grain advanced briskiy.
short covering being factor in both
markets. But active purchases by Man
chester spinners was a stimulating force
in cotton over here. The change of
conditions In the British market Is dis
closed by the fact that the spot price
has risen the equivalent of 31a cents
this week.
Call money eased from per cent. to
Az per cent. after renewals had been
arranged. The foreign exchanges were
dull and steady In the main.