Evening star., 1922-10-30
STOCK QUOTATIONS
|. IN FURTHER BREAK
Prices Plunge Violently
Downward Throughout
Today's Session.
BY STUART p. WEST.

BY STUART p. WEST.
BY Special Leased Wire to The Star
NEW YORK, October 30.-Today's
went through series of con-
ficting price movements.
Heavy selling broke out on the
stock exchange again involving two
hours or so of very general weakness
succeeded later by some recovery.
While stocks were going down the
bond market was hardening, this be-
ing true of both government and
corporate issues Cotton reached a
new high for the year at 2i1. cents
a pound. Meanwhile, weakness crop
ped out afresh in the foreign eX-
changes.
1t was still difficult to connect the
any change either in sentiment or
IN facts regarding the general bust
ness situation. Quite the contrary
the usual over the week reports from
he manufacturing centers. along
With those describing retail and dis
tributive trade, struck a uniformly
optimistic note.
For speculative Wall street To main
tain that Stocks were going down be-
cause things in the business world were
not proceeding as well as expected
was sheer pretenSe.
BrOkerS' Loans a Factor.
The two explanations for the weak
ness in the market lay simply in in
ternal conditions temporarily favoring
speculation for the decline. Much has
been said about the magnitude OF
brokerage loans. and this undoubtediy
is one of the factors which has counted
in the trading of the last week. The
statement has been made that these
loans are larger than they were during
the height of the postwar boom OF
1919. % course. this does not mean
;he general overspeculation which eX-
listed then. But it does mean that
houses carrying the accounts OF large
Spectators operating in the high priced
industrial stocks have had unusual
amounts to borrow because of the great
rise in the prices of this class oi
shares.
1t may well be that banking
sources have sought to encourage
liquidation in these quarters. either
by bringing pressure to bear to have
the loans reduced or by Withholding
support against profe ssionaI attacks
on the share list.
End OF Decline PuzzIing.
How long il will be before the
Wall street position is brought back
to satisfactory shape is not an easy
question to answer. But with the
general run of stocks down :. 10 and
10 points from their highs Of the
spring and summer. undoing in many
instances the greater part of the en-
tire gain. il is fair to presume that
the corrective process is pretty far
along.
The break today in Marine pre-
ferred under so for the first time this
year, carrying with it the common
stock and also American Information
al, was plainly due to fears that the
per cent dividend would either be
cut or passed altogether at the De-
cember meeting.
a lot of Consolidated Textile has
been bought around II on orders said
to have emanated from single
banking source. The Company's af-
fairs have turned the corner, and the
uncertainty as to the effect of the
rise in cotton upon the demand foI
finished goods has been removed.
This is one of the motives pack OF
the buying, but the other is that the
syndicate which took over the last
block of treasury stock. put out To
pay for mill properties. has been
Juggling it at figure still above the
present market price. Possibly the
time is regarded as auspiCious for at
tempting To get rid Of this stock
without Il loss.
Weakness in COpp~rs.
Despite the fact that they have had
less rise than almost any other group
Of stocks. the coppers went down
today quite as sharply as the rest of
the industrials. Evidently specula-
tive holders of Anaconda had reckoned
upon the stock being pesged at so
which was the price at which the new
issue was brought out some time ago
A great many stop orders had been
placed just under that figure, and. as
the 80 level was broken. these orders
were set off in one bunch of i.60O
shares at 49,.
All the other copperS We're similarly
weak in one degree or another. Dis
appointment that the expected rise in
the metal has not occurred. but tha,
on the contrary dealers have been shad-
ing quotations from the 14-cent officia
schedule. is one reason for the selling
The other is that on account of the
large outside speculative following the
copper shares are always vulnerable tc
bear raiding on day like today.
Strength in Texas Sulphur.
Recent strength in Texas Gulf Sui
phur has been attributed to the favor
able condition of the company's affairs
and particularly to the present earnings
Income statements have shown tina,
Texas Gulf more than earned it's full
81 dividend in the first nine months OF
1922
AT one stage the new Treasury AZ
per cent bonds were not far away
from their par This prompt recovery
from last weeks decline showed tina,
this decline was due to transitory
causes. Resale of their holdings by
bond dealers who had expected the
new issue to go to a premium. and had
subscribed merely with the idea OF
making a profitable turn still affords
the most plausible explanation for
the recent weakness. Apparently this
selling had run its course before to-
day.
Possibly the Italian political crisis
had something to do with the renewed
selling in the continental exchanges
but even Italian lire did not reach the
extreme low of week ago. Neither
did French francs. The whole ex-
day, Influenced by reassuring reports
about the situation at Rome.
Cotton Rise Explained.
The rise in the cotton market is the
resumption of the movement which was
interrupted two months ago. At tina,
time the southern growers were salts.
fled to accept 90 cents a pound, be.
cause they were afraid, as was thf
trade in the north, that the high pr =
for the staple would result in checkl =
the demand for cotton goods. These
unusually heavy offerings from the
primary markets stopped the midsum.
mer advance. But now it has beer
pretty we'll established that so far from
curtailing the consumption of cotton
goods, this business is on the increase
In the meantime the first rush OF
cotton to market is over and to-
gether these two factors have afford
ed strong ground for the renewal OF
the upward tendency in prices.
Evidences that loans were being
called in the stock market multiplied
with the course of the day. AS al
ways happens under such circum-
stances these efforts at credit re-
striction resulted in hasty dumping
Qrer of StacIa r.iad in en- lax xis.c