The New York herald., 1921-02-11
FINANCIAL NEWS
AND COMMENT
Slight Rise Of COppers Fea
lures Dull Market-Most
Rails Are Quiet.

A stock market which responds neither
to favorable nor unfavorable develop
ments Is one largely bereft OF pub
lie interest That was the sort of mar
ket seen on the Stock Exchange yester-
day, and even professional hands busted
themselves only in bidding the copper
shares upward. With even a moderate
degree of activity and speculative fer
vor in evidence. the copper mining issues
might have been expected to do more
than rise from a half point to point
in view of the unusual piece of financ-
ing arranged on Wednesday, whereby
400, 900, 900 pounds of accumulated
metal is to be carried by the funds of
investors in place of the funds of pro-
ducing concerns. A yield of to $50
per cent. on the one to four year notes
issued against this metal attracted large
applications for the s40,000,000 of paper
offered yesterday morning. The COM
panies which participated in supplying
the copper will be reimbursed for the
money that they have had tied up, but
it remains to be seen whether the do
per in the near future on a scale making
necessary the use OF these funds to in
crease production. The metal used as
collateral for the note issue is to be
sold abroad.
Other events of the day were as hardly
favorable as the copper financing. The
ruling of the Railroad Labor Board
against the application of railway man
ayers for abrogation of war time agree
ments with the workers was not alto
gether unexpected, except that 1t seemed
to postpone indefinitely further consid-
Grafton of the railroads plea. Presum-
ably. nothing more will be done until
the contentious of the labor unions have
been digested. and in the meantime con-
ditions making for topheavy costs will
continue for the carriers.
The board assumes the burden OF
determining whether the working agree
neither the roads nor the unions for 1t
prior to a full study OF the situation.
Because of the gloomy picture of the
railway outlook which w. w. Atterbury
presented before the board the Street
watched the rail shares for reflection Of
the ruling, but, with the exception of
fractional declines of Atchison, New
Haven, Northern Pacific, Union Pacific
and some of the less prominent stocks,
the rail share market did very little.
An equally indifferent movement OF
steel shares followed the monthly report
of the Steel Corporations ORDERS show
ing a decline of 574,95S tons during
January The aggregate on the books
on January 81 was 7.573,164 tons. the
smallest forward tonnage since 7,12S,330
tons were reported at the end of No
vember, 1919. While contracts have de-
clined nearly 10000 tons in two
months and reports from the industry
show that bookings are slow, the posi-
tion of the corporations orders is by no
means such as to indicate an early con-
traction of operations, provided that
cancellations are not figuring heavily in
day to day business. Developments In
regard to wages and steel prices are to
be awaited in independent manufactur-
ing quarters not within the corporation.
and such comment as is coming forward
foreshadows further cuts in both depart
ments. Excepting several of the large
and well intrenched companies. which
have not lowered wages, reductions have
amounted to about 90 per cent. in the
last few weeks, coincident with a fall of
about 35 per cent. in steel prices from
the premium levels reached early last
year. The competitors of the Steel Cor
poration evidently intend to go slowly
in readjustment. and there is moro like
lihood of a gradual and silent reaction
of wages and prices than anything in
the way of trade war.
Call money stayed at per cent.
Sterling exchange turned about and ad-
vanced to 3.s7ss, compared with 3.S7
the day before. Another decline of a
halfpenny in silver at London brought
slight reaction Of some Of the Far East
ern exchanges, while Continental rates
were steady. The Bank Of England's
reserve ratio got back to 1902 per cent,
as shown in the weekly statement COM
pared with 1854 per cent the week
before. The Improvement resulted from
"A decline of more than f25,000,000 in
deposits and gain of 100000 in re-
serve. Circulation declined f6l1,ooo.