The New York herald., 1921-10-06
FINANCIAL NEWS
AND COMMENT
General Decline in Stock Mar.
ket Follows Pressure on
Mex. Pete. Issues.

tho efforts OF spectators for the fall
OF values. for business began under the
onus Of unsettled sentiment, the prod
uct OF Tuesdays extensive reaction in
cotton and grain and hesitant tone of
stocks. In consequence, bear pressure.
concentrated on Mexican Petroleum ana
one or two allied issues and bringing
declines CT more than points among
them. acted to undermine many Indus
trial and not few railroad stocks ana
declines were fairly general at the end
OF the session. The price list gave way
easiest in the last hour. That the days
movement was engineered mainly by
professional short sellers was indicated
In the fact that the market gave no re-
sponse whatsoever to the best news from
the steel industry in two months; more-
over. the supporting influence of easy
call money-the rate going from to Az
per cent.-was entirely overcome by the
how OF sales for the decline.
As the upturn of stocks in September
ran parallel to the rise of cotton and
the fairly firm trend Of wheat, it was not
surprising that the course of commod-
tiles should direct. to a degree the
movement of stocks yesterday and on
the day before. December and May
wheat options reccded more than cents
bushel to new low points for the sea-
son and the reaction of cotton was more
extensive than II was on Tuesday. The
reasons underlying the recent retreat Of
commodities have been outlined as COM
pletely in previous market discussions
as the present stage of the harvesting
warrants. 1t is certain that future events
in those markets will have force in shap-
ing the movement of securities, but the
Street Is beginning to take more ac-
count OF matters vested in Industry
than was the case during the last fort
night. During the period when cotton
prices were advancing rapidly the factor
Of secondary Importance in moulding
market sentiment was the showing made
by August railroad returns. They have
been digested. leaving the field open for
examination Of progress In manufactur-
ing.
The weeks reports on the steel and
iron trades assuredly give reason for
encouragement. The record Of pig iron
production In September lends more
weight to belief that the depths Of de-
preston were reached in July than did
tho August figures. The September
iron output, reported by the Iron Age,
was $1,000 tons larger than the 954.1s3
tons made in August. and the daily
production was per cent. greater.
There was net gain of twelve fur
naces in blast, and seven more were
scheduled to start up in the fore part
Of October. The United States Steel
Corporations operations have risen to
ss per cent of capacity. against 35 per
cent. last week and not much more than
2S per cent. in the first week of August.
while in one or two districts both cor
poration and independents plants are
more active than are the average ones.
These figures are by no means i'm
pressive. As an earnest OF gradual
business growth however. they are well
worth while. The steel trade would
welcome an increase Of rail orders.
which are still slack. but may expand
as the carriers receive additional funds
in settlement of claims growing out Of
Government operation during the war.
The complexion Of the foreign ex-
change market has changed rapidly for
the better this week without any COM
plete explanation coming forward.
Sterling advanced yesterday 27s cents
to the pound. making the Improvement
since Monday more than 4 cents.
Nearly uii European rates were rirm
and the appearance Of the weekly state
ment Of the Reichsbank. showing another
expansion of more than 1900. 600, 900
marks circulation, failed to disturb the
rate of German exchange. One or two
banks and trust companies have been
making large remittances to London. A
guess is that they represent in part the
transfer of funds obtained from the sale
of foreign owned American securities
mainly bonds sold on the rising market
here.