Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-05-23
QUICK RALLY MADE
ONFREE COVERING
Suggestion Of Window Dressing
to Expedite Sale Of New
French Loan \.

New York, May 23.--For the first
two hours toda,'s stock market dis
played a strong upward trend and a
considerable part of the lost ground
last week was retrieved in a number OF
the speculative specisltie.. TIL. re.
yersal In the market trend had its in
ception in 0 spirited forward movement
In the oil shares. particularly the Mdfi-
can issues. The recovery, however,
quickly spread to the steel and equip
inept shares, which were moved up well
under the stimulating leadership of Y.
s, Steel. Their the rails Joined the
upward procession, with substantial
rallies occurring In those shares which
were hit the hardest last week because
Ct dividend uncertainties. Just about
the time when II looked as if the mar
ket had started on a we'll defined ad-
vance u1den weakness cropped out in
the motor group. with the flank of the
attack resting on Pierce Arrow. But
all the auto shares proved to be vulner-
able despite the hard hammcring they
lad suffered. This checked the recov-
cry movement elsewhere and the mar
ket became quite irregular.
In the opinion Of some observers
the days operations had all the sus-
picious earmarks Of window dressing"
for the benefit of the 500, 900, 900
French Government IN per cent loan.
While. no doubt considerable Of the
recent selling was for the short account
and the market was closely approaching
an oversold condition, the manipulatiye
manouvers attending the morning move
ment were too plainly trade marked
to be mistaken. No doubt the powers
to be. much the same as doing the
marketing of tire burlington bonds.
were anxious to have snappy and rising
market 70 expedite the distribution OF
the new French loan. A more psycho.
logical moment could not possibly have
been selected. After ten days of al.
most steady hammering by the pro-
fessionals the market was Just ripe for
a technical rally.
Unfortunately there was nothing par
ticularly inspiring in the over-the-
week -end developments to help the
movement along. Despite the continued
disappointing frmness of money, with
the renewal rate for call loans fixed at I
ger cent, the screws we're applied to
the shorts from the outset, although
there was no evidence Of the forcing
process so conspicuous in the upward
swing of fortnight ago, when the big
Burlington issue was being placed.
Mexican Petroleum was the dominant
feature at the opening and for the most
part of the morning that stock evil
IDENTIFY being selected because it was one
of the easiest to move. But the real
scare for the shorts came when the ac-
tivity was shifted to United states
Steel with that fsvorite leader quickly
marked up to "a on fast running sales.
In the meantime Mexican Petroleum
was run up Az points. Pan American,
General Asphalt and Tidewater were
among the other strong oils. Bethle-
hem. Republic and Crucible Steel fol-
lowed United States Steel with gains
Of l to ~ points. Shorts were also
given a severe twist In Bosch Magnetic.
American Linseed. Peoples Gas and
Famous Players ana some of the other
specialties which had been unduly de-
pressed.
In the second hour some attention
was given to the rails, shipping and
copper shares. Just before mid day the
flank drive against the motors were
launched with that group breaking
badly, especially Pierce Arrow, al
though General Motors for the first
time dipped under II.