Evening star., 1922-11-10
WALL STREET LIST
DECLINES SHARPLY
Bear Raids Force Many
Leading Issues to Lower
Levels.
BY STUART p, WEST.


NEW YORK, November 1O.-Uncer-
tainty was the chief characteristic in
all the markets today. 1t showed it.
self alike in stocks, in bonds, in cotton
and in the foreign exchanges.
Trading on the stock exchange fell
off rather sharply in volume. Price
changes were extremely irregular. In
bonds there was also less activity and
prices were as near stationary as they
can ever be. This was true of lib
critics and NEST corporate issues 1t
was significant. though, that French
and Belgian government issues show
ed no inclination to rally.
Public Remains Timid.
Operations on the stock exchange
consisted chiefly of professional ex-
periments on the short side The
market in general had plainly shown
on Thursday that it had lost it's snap.
In other words, the retreat of the
short interests, which had been main
ly instrumental in putting prices up
at the start of the week, was over.
There was no enthusiastic outside
public to take the market up when
short coverings ceased. Consequently
conditions favored for the time being
attempts TO put prices down. These ef-
forts were directed at individual
stocks. first one and then another. and
number of weak spots were brought
out.
Allied Chemical Slumps.
Allied Chemical was driven down on
the idea that predictions of an in
creased dividend had not made good.
and that the stock was selling out of
line with its present rate of distribu-
ton.
Houston Oil broke sharply on the
publication of the third-Quarter re-
port. which certainly did not agree
with the sanguine estimates which
wall street was listening to a while
ago.
Shares OF the independent steel
companies proved rather more vul-
neTable than the average, for the
well known reason that while busi-
ness is much better than it was, the
margin of profit is narrow.
Steel Reports Meaning.
The Steel Corporation monthly
statement on untitled tonnage was
neither better nor worse than had
tons in orders on the books compared
ith an increase of 100000 tons the
month before. but this. of course. was
no measure of the relative business
activity of the two periods.
The unusual September gain was
due far more to the partial freight
te-up than to any rush of new Gus
tom. On the other hand the October
result was a direct reflection of the
gain in mill operations during that
month"; gain from 20 to 75 per cent
of capacity.
Crisis Faced Abroad.
The continued heaviness in Eu-
ropean government loans fitted in
with the fresh downward trend in
the exchanges. which was especially
marked in the case of French and
Belgian francs. Both bond and ex-
change markets were quite evidently
giving expression to their disappoint-
ment and uneasiness at the outcome
of the Berlin conference between the
reparatiOns commission and German
treasury officials. The admission,
even from the highest allied sources,
that affairs have reached a deadlock.
with little promise of its being
broken, brings French and Belgian
finances to q crisis, for whether it is
a question Of direct indemnity pay
ments or of using such payments as
"a basis for internal loans, both coun-
tries are absolutely unprepared for
German default
Selling Gains at Close.
For want of some other and better
excuse the speculative element talked
about the Turkish crisis as a rea-
son for the decline in stocks. The
fact was that the Turkish situation
produced no acute apprehension in
banking circles.
The decline. for the most part, was
merely the result of another aggres-
lators who were active on the short
side ten days ago. The downward
movement became more general in
the last hour. with losses of to 3
points upon active industrials and a
point or two points among the rails.