New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-07-21
Stock Prices
Firm i'm Dull
Trading Here
Sseadiness of Market Taken
TO Reflec, Shift in Atti-
tudc of Professionals;
Exchanges Turn Lower

With activity in all the financial
markets again repressed almost to
minimum by factors associated with
midsummer dullness, stock and bond
| quotations were firm yesterday and
commodity prices and exchange rates
on the European capitals lower. In
the steadiness of stocks little more is
reflected than shift in the attitude
of professional spectators, whose
Judgment, as expressed by market
operations, may be taken for what it
u.s. worth. Commission houses, which
are left virtually idle by the recession
of public participation, are in increas-
ing numbers tending to voice more
| optimism regarding the immediate
outlook for speculative issues.
Meantime, the larger outside world
enters the financial markets chiefly as
discriminating purchasers of bonds,
demanding high rates on issues of con-
Germs of good credit standing. AS
result of tho stimulus that has come
from the July reinvestment demand,
buyers have gobbled up most of the
available supply Of new offerings, and
in place of the congested condition Of
unstable bonds which prevailed to
some extent as late as last month
dealers now complain Of lack of
wares. This situation results from no
tremendous frightening Of demand,
but rather from keeping the supply of
new securities low.
Some of the more fortunate prospec-
tive borrowers. who could readily OBJ
tain funds, are holding off in anticipa-
ton of better terms subsequently,
whereas many of those concerns which
need funds as soon as they can get
them are unable to find willing lenders.
| The railroad situation is not yet suf-
fciently out of the field of uncertainty
to permit of large financing operations,
although improvement is being made.
The funding of the roads debt to the
government seems near fruition, hav-
ing been approved yesterday, accord
ing to reports, by the Association of
Railway Executives.
An indication of the basic trend of
money rates came in the announcement
yesterday by the Federal Reserve Bank
Of New York and of three other
regional institutions of a further re-
duction in the discount rate from
to 51a per cent. This is the third re-
duction this year by the New York
bank, and each cut is tantamount to
statement that credit has become
easier, the banking situation has got
better in hand, and that reserves are
high. The Reserve Bank began the
opposite movement of raising rates in
November 1919, when imitation was
progressively increasing. The policy of
rate increases came long before the
check of expansion and the fall Of
prices, though it clearly foreshadowed
dc1ation. Now the series of downward
establishments have preceded the end
of jhe recessive movements in many
lines Of industry, though it none the
less forecasts a termination of the
setback in commerce.
With the prospect that The funding
plan will put the railroads in funds,
there is indication Of heightened buy
ing in the near future by the railroads,
and this was one reason for the firm
ness yesterday of the equipment shares.
The wooden, rubber and leather shares
were also bought with some avidity.