The New York herald., 1921-09-20
FINANCIAL NEWS
AND COMMENT
Prices Of Stocks Recede While
Commodity Markets Gain
and Marks Fall.

OF prices became pronounced, around the
middle of August, stocks and conmodi-
ties parted company yesterday. the
former drawing back. while cotton and
grain disclosed strong tone. The rise
In cotton in fact added Ia cents a
pound TO last weeks closing prices of
futures. That Is a movement which dis
closes considerable market viyor. even
against the background OF the highly
excited and erratic swings OF three
weeks ago. Wheat advanced 10 2A
cents a bushel in Chicago. the full
movement from the days lowest to its
highest quotations being more than 3
cents. Stocks, Arm for time in the
morning, under the leadership of United
States Steel. came into an area Of SELL
ing before noon and at the end OF the
day practically all active issues had lost
amounts varying from fractions to more
than points. Call money continued
I the easy position disclosed toward the
end OF last week. the rate going from
to 4 u per cent.
Stocks and commodities moved IN diff
ferent directions for the evident reason
that whereas the common Impulse OF
improved sentiment had application TO
all Of them in the second half of Au-
gust and the first week of September.
factors which have come into the mar
kets of late have a bearing on the
markets separately. The natural cooling
period for speculation in cotton. e
sutant from the preceding wild 1pecula-
ton. came along last week, when prices
reacted about cents pound from high
est levels. Grain also was somewhat re-
dictionary then. while stocks held up
with a fairly stable front. With stock
market trading largely in the hands OF
professionals. it was inevitable, as mar
ket history is written. that share prices
sooner or later would reflect some oil
the same sort of realizing and short
sales which cotton had experienced, and
that is what occurred yesterday.
The rails were under less pressure
than were Industrial issues, and the
pressure applied to such stocks as Bald
| win Locomotive. whose loss was 1
points; Crucibie steel, General Asphalt,
Mexican Petroleum. Royal Dutch and
Studcbaker. suggesting that traders were
active in putting out lines OF short stock
In directions where the recent rise ha!
been large. II remains to be seen
10 ina
familiar reaction of the kind described
above. A far as could be learned, gen.
eral business has disclosed no indication
Of rcpudiating the gradual expansion
stock prices of recent date. on the con-
trary, over Sunday reports from steel
making centres were cheerful. and evil
dencc that wholesale prices were becom-
ing stable was contained in the Bureau
of Labor statistics report that the aver
age OF lengthy group OF products had
! advanced In August 81 per cent. over
! the July figure. The rise Of cotton was
pred!cated on estimates OF additional
crop damage which Is expected to be
shown in the Forthcoming monthly Gov
ernment report. Active buying OF grain
for export is an influence likely to impart
.irmness or steadiness to prices, at leas,
until the extent of this years yield AT
home and abroad can be sized up.
One or Two new bond issues were dis
tributed with the ease that was noted
last week, and strength marked dealings
In bonds of older issues. Liberty bonds
especially rising with persistence, whict
betolened an inflow OF investment funds
from many parts of the country. Pos
sibly the movement was aided in part
by dispatches from Washington which
outlined reported movement to have
the Liberty issues made exempt from
taxation. 1t seems hardly probable that
such development could occur without
having a disturbing influence on manv
other bonds, to say nothing OF hamper
ing the Treasury's work OF selling Its
certificates and notes.
German exchange suffered another re-
action, the mark going from 1.o1 cents
to osila cents. Sterling was fraction
ally lower. but the market lacked dis
| tinctive feature at all times.