The New York herald., 1921-04-27
FINANCIAL NEWS
AND COMMENT
Strength Of Steels and Indus
trial Specialities Is Offset
to Realizing.

lne e1Iect OF heavy volume or real
!zing sales among stocks which had
advanced the fastest this month was
more than offset yesterday by pro-
| nounced strength OF steel Issues and
several Industrial specialties The Wig
orous upturn OF Bethlehem Steel Lacka-
wanna, Republic Iron and Steel and
United States Steel was particularly In
teresting In the light OF the Steel Cor
poration's quarterly statement OF earn
ings. Belief that the Steel Corporations
common stock dividend had been earned
was discounted by the Nrmness OF the
| quotation for several days past. but the
the close OF the market, showed that a
continuance OF business in the current
quarter at the rate OF March would
bring a deficit In the three months end
ed with June The net income OF
s7.741.35o In March was i6 per cent.
less than In January and full quarters
return on the March basis would fail to
cover interest. sinking fund.- deprecia-
$1,000, 900. The stock market. however.
deals less with actualities OF the mo-
ment than with possibilities OF the fu-
ture What yesterdays action OF the
steel shares seemed TO indicate was tho
thought among the trading element at
least that the worst news about the In
dustry was coming out with the pros
pect that a recovery would appear a
little later on. The corporations earn
,nxrs Of sa2.2Se.722 were in line with the
average of preliminary estimates made
In the Street
The selling pressure OF yesterday morn
ing centred chiefly In oils and sugars
It looked as though many traders with
substantial profits had been moved to
convert them into cash for two reasons !
first, because many are not convinced
that an Improvement OF prices can he
maintained SO long as Industry Is IN an
uncertain and irregular state. and. sec
ond. because the reception which tho AL
lied Governments will give the German
proposals on the separations IL not
known. Yesterdays cables made 1t clear
that France and England are determined
that any acceptable proposal must ap-
proxmate closely the original demands
Ii Is yet to be seen whether the good
offices of the United States In bringing
the two sides together WIN tend to
soften the allied terms in any respect.
While the German plans as outlined
from Berlin appears to draw close to
tho programme devised two months ago,
there are still some important gaps to
be filled, and followers of the security
pends on events In Europe are inclined
to make sure OF results over there be-
fore becoming committed to a definite
and lasting position.
Sterling exchange stood firmly at n
level around 3.9415 throughout the day
extensive purchases of French francs
carried them forward briskly. n rise OF
20 points disclosing what looked like an
Increase OF speculative ventures based
on expectations of a favorable out
como or the reparatlonS matter. EVi-
dence is coming. especially from France
and England. OF satisfactory trade and
fiscal changes. which are undoubtedly
playing their part in the exchanges.
The ability Of France to convert burden
some trade balances from the debit to
the credit side OF the books, as she did
In February for the first time since
1914, is an earnest OF constructive ef-
forts now bearing fruit.
Call money remained at s. y per cent.
but the tone OF collateral loans on time
was better and an easement OF COM
mrcial paper discounts from ~ to 7h
and even ~ per cent is suggestive OF
an easier money and credit condition
after May /. Grain and cotton were ir-
regular and left of little changed.