The Washington times., 1922-10-24
STOCK MARKET
Under
HARD PRESSURE
Many Stocks Below Yester-
days Close IN Early
!. Trading.
By w. 8. COUSINS.

tCopyrBnt' lsSk, py Cosmoponthn NEWS
NEW YORK, Oct. .24.-The action
of the stock market in the early
trading was almost an exact dupli-
cation of that which ushered In the
new week In yesterdays irregular
session. Stocks were pressed for sale
in every section of the. market. and
the end of the first hour presented
a price level that was In some in
stances as much as three points be-
low that Of yesterdays close. While
there was probably smaller volume
OF offerings In this first period, they
at least exceeded the influx of buying
orders at the last closing prices, and
hence there was nothing for the mar.
ket to do but retire to a lower price
level. . ~ f- .
Adding the losses of the first
hour today to those which were
sustained yesterday made some
fairly wide gaps In prices and.
gcompared with last weeks high,
stocks like Studebaker. Baldwin.
ETC.. showed up losses that ex.
ceeded ten points. Studebaker sold
last week at 139, today at 12sas;
Baldwin. f42%, compared with
1851 today: U. 8. Steei,a Ill v,
against 106k: 8. o. NJ. j., 224.
against 214; American Can. 7sH,
against 70. 90 fs.:,T
Following the actual announcement
of the stock and cash dividend plan
for Pan.American and Mexican Pc
troleum stockholders, these stocks
featured the trading today, and In the
first half hour no less than 10 900
shares of Mexican and 26,400 shares
of the; two ,Pan.American stocks
changed hands. 1t is of course
problematical how much of this was
due to the necessity of short covering
to beat the time limit. but as prices
reached their peak at the opening
and declined fairly steadily up to
noon, II may be assumed that there
was considerable profit taking by the
longs who sold on the theory that
further rise In prices would be
checked by the publication OF the
good news" Whatever short in
terest still exists must he retired by
November 8. after which time the big
speculative leader will'disappear from
the trading lists. II,
The first indication Of. substantial
buying support In the market today
CfaInc tuNoukH tue Cfi8flnc.b VI the
railroad stocks. They had declined
only a short distance when they
encountered sufficient demand not
only to absorb all offerings. but TO
inaugurate q rally which was evi.
dent In the market action Of most
stocks I'm this group. Reading.
which had closed at s1%, sold above
SO: Lehigh was up more than Il
point at 70h: Northern Pacific
nearly point: and Norfolk and
Western continued its upward
movement in anticipation Of an in.
crease in dividend by the directors
at their meeting today.
Equipments and fndustrials did not
exhibit much rallying power in this
first period, and prices on the whole
were fractionally below the range Of
yesterdays close. The few excep.
tons to, this rule included the Can
stocks, Mallinson and United States
Steel. Coca Cola failed to go for
ward, notwithstanding the report
that the company had earned over
S1f a share In the first nine months
Of 1922. rSRepublic Steel sold below
81 for as,further loss Of ~: Crucible
below 81, and Gulf States lost about
one spointa. Inactivity rather than
weakness. featured the market In the
second hour Call money, AZ per