The New York herald., 1921-09-15
FINANCIAL NEWS
AND COMMENT
Stock Trading Is Broader
Market Closes Irregular
Exchanges Lower.

Dealings In a broader list OF stocks
and an increase of more than so per
cent. in the turnover, compared with
that of the preceding session, showed
yesterday that speculative interest had
been stimulated by the price movements
OF recent days. The larger activity.
however, was evidently accounted for In
part by a growth of sales for the. short
In the morning was checked soon after
the noon hour. and weakness OF impor-
tant stocks near the close caused the
list to leave off in position Of irregu-
larity. Numerous Industrial issues were
point TO points higher than they
were on Tuesday many were a point to
] u points lower. and those which had
been the centre OF trading for last
weeks rise were fractionally lower for
the most part.
Much the same situation existed In
cotton as in stocks. n rather sluggish
movement indicating that traders were
trying to get their bearings after the
recent violent swings, and In that effort
were reducing their transactions. Al
though final prices for future contracts
disclosed only moderate changes for the
day. some being toward lower and
others toward higher levels, the days
news Of cotton was constructive for
speculation. The Census Bureaus re-
port on August consumption showed that
5G.S71 bales more of the staple had been
used than In july which was probably
$4,000 bales more than the market had
forecast. Also the report indicated that
spinners held on August 124.600 bales
less than they did year before. and
exports for the month were three times
those of August. 1920. Those figures
suggested that trade reports of improved
manufacturing were borne out in Off
cial returns, and the statistical position
Of cotton prices was strengthened by the
relation of stocks .in spinners' hands to
the expected short crop.
The days news anc events bearing
on securities were also constructive. in
dustrial Issues being more affected
than were the rails. Since surveys
of the steel and iron industry be-
gan to Indicate around the middle of
August that the point of greatest de-
Fl ession was reached In July. the
Street has been studying closely all in
formation about the trade that has
come to hand. This weeks grist of
news, while inconclusive about certain
lines of production, is assuredly the
or more. The United States Steel Cor
poration's production OF wire products,
according to the Iron Age, has gone UP
to 40 per cent. OF mill capacity and So
into effect in the last few days The
corporations plants as a whole are
averaging 80 per cent operations In
contrast to 80 per cent. last month. A
point worth considering In regard to
business of the largest unit in the In
dustry Is that while advance orders
fell off 29S,000 tons last month, fac
tor of real Importance In the change
was an expansion OF 100000 tons In
shipments of finished products as COM
pared with those of July.
To a degree financial interest was
switched yesterday from stocks and
commodities to the foreign exchange
market by reason of an all round de-
cline of rates on allied countries and on
Germany. Sterling succumbed to what
seemed 20 be an expansion of specula-
tive sales for the fall and an increase
cf buying OF dollars in London pre-
sumably for establishing grain and cot
tor credits on this side. The sight quo
tation at 3.s9A was "a cents lower at
the close than 1t was on Tuesday.
while francs lost IS points to 600 and
marks reached down again to .92 cent
each. There is no doubt that the fall
OF the mark to record low levels and
reports OF possible moratorium on
further reparations payments for con-
siderable time to come have disturbed
earafu,, aw1hangae