Evening star., 1921-12-29
LITTLE CHANGE IN .
THE STOCK LIST
BY STUART p. WEST.

NEW YORK, December 29.-Today
was the least interesting of the week
SO far in any of the markets. Stocks
were dull and uncertain, but with a
stronger tone through the greater
part of the session.
Railway bonds were Inclined to go
nlSher and there were further evil
dences in the bond list as whole of
preparations for the January reinvest-
ment demand.
The cotton market continued to re-
i1ect the more confident feeling which
has shown itself for the last week or
more in consequence Of favorable re-
ports from the English cotton centers.
as well as from the cotton manufac-
turing districts here.
Dealings In foreign exchange were
small and unimportant except in the
case of Italian lire. There was fur
cable advices which told of the sus-
pension of one of the large Italian
banks and of the effort which the
government was making to stave off
| financial crisis. Just what is the
! nature of the banking troubles in
Italy Is not altogether clear, but it
seems to be direct result of the in
dustrial depression, particularly that
| in the metal trade.
Slow and Unchanged.
There was very little incident to the
| trading IN stocks Professionals had bid
the market up yesterday morning and
tumblel out hastily yesterday afternoon,
leaving the position at the close of the
! day practically unchanged. This morn
! ing the experience of the previous day
was evidently being borne in mind. for
operations were conducted with much
more caution. The strongest stocks were
those IN which the presence of Il large
short interest was suspected-stocks like
Sears Roebuck and American Suma ira.
While there was no bear" account to
work upon even the venturesome pro-
| fessiona.s were very careful how they
attempted to bid up prices.
Railway shares as rule were
stronger than the average among the
! lndustrials. November traffic re-
ports continued to make better
showing than had been expected.
the st. Pauls for example, in which
the net operating income sank to a
bare $5,l54, as against the October
total of $2,510,000. But in the main
| the figures disclose the ability of the
| road to offset the falling off in gross
business with a more than commen-
| surate lowering of costs.
! Motor stocks.
The position in Studebaker was
| voted to be about the most puzzling
!! of anything on the list. On the floor
OF the stock exchange the tip was
| current of an impending ten point
advance. The same sort OF a move
was declared to be a possibility in
some of the brokerage literature sent
| out this morning.
| On the other hand. one of the big
| operators was said to have tried to
put the stock up yesterday without
! success. The house through which he
i nrin cir Nv 1ic
appointment because it was so diff
cult to attract an outside following
Yet yesterdays failure might have
| been set to the general reactionary
drift of the market
At all events Studebaker from the
| street today acted much better.
| There was a renewal of selling in
very large blocks of General Motors
common. Those who have been say
ing that this was all tax selling were
! more divided in their opinion this
morning. One firm reversed itself
| from the dividend prospects, and after
having said less than week ago that
| 1t was safe and would be paid on
January 4. it asserted this morning
| that the dividend must be regarded
as in some doubt.
1t is understood tAat General Motors
will have earned this year about 50
cents a share, SO that it would require
| only a very slight draft upon surplus,
| to maintain the dollar rate.
AtchisOn.
! Atchison is one road which came
| out fairly well in November as COM
pared with the previous month. Gross
| earnings, to be sure. fell off S2.10O,0OO
| which was a rather large shrinkage
! but the net for November was off very
little. 1t was s5,073,000, as against
| October's s5,3s7,00O.
| Lackawanna's Extra.
| Recent strength of Delaware. Lack
| awanna and Western was accounted
! for by the announcement today that
an extra dividend of per cent cash
! had been declared in addition to the
regular quarterly dividend of per
| cent. This. however. still makes a
pretty small return to the investor
1t amounts to $3.50 share on the
| stock, selling around 11S to 119.