The Washington herald., 1921-06-24
PRICES ERRATIC
DURING ACTIVE
CHANGE SESSION
Many, New Lows Made,
With Relatively Wide
Fluctuations.
STEELS ARE RAIDED
Motors and Rubber Particu-
larly Aid Net Losses at
Close of Day.

NEW YORK, June 23.-Wtth
trading still active, the stock mar
ket showed much irregularity ana
. relatively wide fuctuation OF
prices. Many new lows were
recorded, but substantial recover
les occurred in succeeding rallies.
Steals. Motors and Rubbers were
particularly weak at times ana
still offered instances of losses OF
from 1 to 8 points toward the close.
A, that time the rest of the indus
trial list was distinctly Irregular
while Rails were fractionally iower.
Altogether, the appearance was one
~ marked confusion among the
forces to which the market re-
Gently has been subjected. Call
money was at 5 per cent through
out.
Foreign Exchange.
Very little business was trans
acted during the day in foreign eX-
change, but the market in general
was weaker than yesterday. Ster-
ling opened l cent below yester-
day's closing at $3.73%, but later
rallied to s3.74b. Francs opened 3
points up at S.o4 cents, dropped to
s cents fat. and then advanced to
SOL Marks sold down to 1.39
cents, the lowest price at which
they have been quoted for some
time, and points below yester-
days quotations. Lire proved to
be the weakest feature of the mar
ket. dropping, 20 points during the
days trading to AIS.
Bank of Englnnd's Cut,
Reduction of the Bank of Eng
lands discount rate from 6h per
cent to 6 hardly can be taken as a
surprise. since the possibility of
such q change and the reasons for
and against it have been a subject
of discussion for several weeks
past. When the Z per cent was
abandoned on April 81, after having
been in force for slightly more than
a year. reduction of a full per
cent probably would have been
made had 1t not seen for the coal
strike and The. banks desire to
curb the enthusiasm of the specu-
lative element. Last week, with
the New York Reserve Bank coming
down to a s per cent rate. and with
a general expectation that the Brit
ish miners would vote to return to
work, the opinion became wide
spread that lower bank rate was
In prospect. The Unexpectedly ad-
verse result of the miners ballot
threw another cloud of doubt
around a reduction. but the bank
evidently has decided either that
the strike is waning rapidly or
that further delay is impracti.
cable. Whether the change will
nave any immediate and profound
erect on trade is to be doubted, n
VIII, however. permit the govern.
ment to borrow on Treasury bills
at lower figure. and should make
for higher security prices
The concurrent statement OF the
Bank of England shows a slight
Improvement in the proportjon oT
reserve, the new figure being 13e
per cent, as compared with Ia a
week ago. At the same time IL is
interesting to note that the bank,.
ratio stood at 17k per cent at the
time a per cent rate was substj.
tuted for s. While the bank, no.
sitlon Is thus no better than when
the higher rate was deemed neces-
sary' the other cii cumstances are.
OF course, entirely different, the de-
mano Tor credit and the danger of
speculation being now relatively
slght. The Improvement of the
past week is due to a reduction f..
deposits. the changes in circulation
anu reserves being negligible.