Evening star., 1921-11-30
Stocks ARE SOFT,
AT LOWER PRICES
BY SIT ART y. WEST.

! NEW YORK. November 5o.-Re-
/ ,,.vtry in French francs and German
marks-esI eciaily sharp in the care
1 of fEe former-was the most I'M
! i:oitant happening in the financial
situation today. 1t followed directly
| upon the conferences at London with
| the Representatives of German big
! business and undoubtedly was an ex-
/ pres zion Of confidence that some
, thing was 'ike-y to come from these
| interviews to smooth the way for
| tn, next German repars ions pay
/ n.eni and steady the Exchanges.
/ French francs were up nearly a
,gnt from their low OF Monday at
Y n. time. Evidently this rise had
involved hasty repGrchaseS by Spec
ulators fer the decline. which. after
/ they had run their course. We're sue
ceeded by an abrupt reaction. Ger
man marks meanwhile got well above
the 40 cents level. But important as
adjustment of the reparations ques-
ton would be for the markets of the
world it was only in the foreign eN-
changes that there was any response
1 tc the news from London.
The stock market ignored the matter
! its own immediate position and the es-
Sential influence was the uncovering of
another lot of weak spots among in
dividual stocks.
| These were sufficiently numerous final
ly to wear the general list down.
; The day began with further heavy
selling of stocks which had been weak
yesterday. notably Sears Roebuck and
International Paper. Then Mexican Pc
! troleum broke down severely on word
/ from Mexico City that the export tax
during November would amount to over
! 81 "A barrel NOR. than the. October tax.
owing to the increased valuation of
crude oil as agreed upon between the
Mexican officials and the American oil
representatives. Industrial Alcohol
reached the lowest price in six years on
reports that it was losing money on its
present operations.
Weakness Spreads.
| As the session went on the selling
became more general and for the first
time in more than a week reaction
was well defined. Railway shares did
, better than industrials. as rule.
| Northern Pacific was in demand be-
cause of the belief that the increased
dividend on Burlington stock. looked
| for at the meeting tomorrow, will be
large enough to insure Northern Pa
cific's present Z per cent.
New Haven made a fair response to
| the intimations that arrangements are
| being made to take care of the French
loan. which natures next spring, but.
| in the main. the railway list went
lower. along with the weakness IN the
industrial quarter.
Mexican Petroleum.
The break in Mexican Petroleum
followed the publication of Mexi-
| can treasury circular placing the val
! uation Of light crude oil for purposes
of export taxation at 1.4S barrel for
November. This meant-taking the
! tax at 10 per cent of valuation-an
, increased levy as compared with Oc-
: tober of S4.01 barrel. or more than
a third. 1t was at once pointed out
that this increase was in accordance
] with the arrangement made by the
! American oil men with the Mexican
government some time ago. and
must. therefore. have been well known
to the insiders. But il the insiders
/ knew what was comiug the public
/, did not, and the announcement Of the
heavily increased impost came as a
good deal of shock.
American Sugar.
| The same houses which were sellers
Of Mexican Petroleum and Sears Roe
buck also sold American Sugar down.
The surprising part about the decline
in the latter was that it came i'm
mediate1y after the news that sub
sidiary of the company had won two
OF ltS SultS aSdinSl customers VINO, IL
was alleged, had laid down on their
contracts to purchase sugar when it
was up to 221a cents.
| AS has been known all along. a
great deal depends, SO far as American
Sugars financial position is concerned.
upon the ability to enforce these
high-priced contracts. and seemingly
this preliminary victory ought to have
been regarded as very good news.
The street was inclined, accordingly.
to reason that this good news had
been taken advantage of to unload
stock in the hands of people who
would be apt to know If there were
impending unfavorable Developments
II of another sort.