The New York herald., 1921-01-12
FINANCIAL COMMENT
Crucible Steel Leads as Shorts
in Industrials Endeavor to
Cover in Stock Market.


interest in industrial stocks to extricate
itself from a difficult position supplied
most OF the interest to yesterdays stock
market The process could be likened
to the refilllng Of a vacuum, buying or
ders rushing In as it became clearer
than on Monday or the closing days OF
last week that the short selling of De-
cember had depressed prices so far tlat
rebound of substantial proportions
could not be headed off by fresh pres
sure. AS on Monday. offerings of Cru
chile Steel were rather scanty when
bidders wanted the stock resulting In
a rise of more than 10 points at The
maximum level of the session and carry
ing the price to a point S7ia poirts
above the minimum of last month. This
stock presented the extreme illustration
Of the present hardship OF the short IN
terest. but independent steel, railroad
equipment and miscellaneous manufac-
turing company shares advanced l
point to more than 3 points under trad
ing which bore all the earmarks of
hurried bear retreat.
AS the market as a whole was ir-egu-
lar, being we'll sprlnkled with moderate
defines among railroad issues and slight
gains in other departments. little mate
rial was produced upon which deductions
might be made Of the future. Dealings
reflected hardly anything of outside
events; in fact, there was only a scanty
array of news OF market import during
the business period. Call money again
moved downward from to per cent.
but 1t appeared as though this tendency
had less effect than the day before to
promote purchases of stocks for the rise.
The Street has heard so much about the
easing trend Of money rates that. while the
appearance of an actual tone of recession
appeared for the first time on Monday,
1t seems taken for granted that the
money market IS much more easy than
the call and the time rates show. There
were reports of time loans at per cent
However as has been said before the
banking attitude has not yet favored an
abrupt decline of money quotations. for
the question of money and credit needs
in essential lines, including Government
transactions. has not yet been solved.
The stock market following is not at
tempting to guess what is going to hap
pen after the task of correcting last
months overdone selling is completed
The fact that stocks have been moving
in highly uneven fashion indicates that
the support through purchases of par
ticular issues has not been distributed
over the entire market, and one reason
for this is undoubtedly the desire Of the
public to determine the extent to which
business is likely to improve in the next
few months, and also, 1t goes without
saying. that great many spectators
who overstayed the rising market of last
spring and suffered losses are not in
position to take advantage of opportu-
mites afforded by the current price level,
opportunities looking ahead for q year or
longer.
Sterling exchange advanced briskly
at the start of business. gaining about
3h cents before noon. Then consider
able profit taking came along. causing
reaction of cent but this was fol-
lowed near the end of the day by a fresh
gain which left the check rate at 3.76,
figure 3 u cents above Mondays clos
ing rate. Francs were firm and marks
disclosed more resiliency than In the up
turn of the preceding day. moving from
1.40Ia cents to la cents. A feature
of the market was the continued firm
ness of South American and some of
the Far Eastern quotations, which may
or may not have reflected an improving
tendency of trade conditions. In bank
ing quarters further advances are ex-
pected during the next month. although
1t is believed that the rise of the last
ten days has been so rapid as to fore
cast considerable irregularity In day to
day movements.
Cotton advanced early in the day, bur
headed into fairly heavy selling in the
afternoon and closed lower than on
Monday. Grain future prices improved.