Omaha daily bee., 1922-04-20
Financial
Gbr New fork Gimea.
By ALEXANDER DANA MOVES
Omaha B~s Iessed Wisr.

New York. April lo.-Whe,her
because the tension at Genoa seemed
to have relaxed overnight. or be.
cause further signs OF improvement
IN the home industrial situation out.
weighed political considerations. or
Tor both reasons. all financial mar.
kets showed evidence OF returning
eomposufe today. European ex.
change rates moved up nearly to
Tuesdays early and highest figures.
The stock market. after an early and
fractional decline. recovered most
or all OF the previous days declines
and the investment bond market
continued both strong and active.
The last feassufing TACT about the
stock market--in which business
again ran lar above a million shares.
making the 18th consecutive million
share day in the present month
was the fact that the days activity
again converged, not on the seasoned
investment shares. but on the highly
speculative industrials. notably the
"oil stocks" While IL is quite true
that stocks OF this character are
always apt to move the most violent
ly when the general markets
tendency is either strongly upward
or strongly downward. they are not
the traditional basis for sound and
trustworthy movement OF prices.
4. +. Steel Advances.
United States steel was In this regard
tho main eSeeptioni an hdyAnc. of IN
points brought IL within Y OF per cent
OF par. But few other seasoned invest
ment shares showed equal strength. the
railway shares in particular recovered
slowly. This may have been partly be-
cnus. tho car loading returns pub
llshed today for the first full week OF
April. showed decrease OF 1879 cars
smallest since the tlrst week Of the year.
This. however, had been entirely expect.
ed: It's cause Is shown by tho fact that
loadings OF coal alone decreased 1896
cars while loadines OF general merchan-
disc increased e.oti. Furthermore. even
this large reduction left the weeks total
TO $4,000 cars. or 2& per cent than In
the same week Of 1921.
The current rate OF the country's steel
production Is calculated in the midweek
trade reviews at rs per cent OF capacity
tor the steel corporation and about 40
for tho, independents. This contrasts
Win % per cent IoF tnc lHuustFy NJ
whole at the beginning OF April with IS
TO 60 month ago. with maximum
OF 45 last autumn and with rate rang
ing from 80 to 40 per cent In this week
OF 1921.
Situation Not CleaI.
II will be seen from this comparison
on what Mr.. Gary based his statement
OF Tuesday to the steel corporations
meeting. that the business done in steel
has doubled In magnituro within a year
II Is not altogether clear how far the
present pace OF expansion is caused by
increasing requirements Of consumers and
how far by fear of curtailment In pro-
duction because OF the coal strike, but
actual needs are apparently the greater
driving force.
The Iron Age points out the 'increas-
ing inability of mills to make prompt
deliveries" despite the enlargement or
active capacity. Even for March the
output Of structural steel. in response to
the nation-wd revival OF building ac-
tivities, is now reported as having been
30 per cent above the same months aver
age in the last 10 years and the steel
corporations chairman made the striking
statement lat Mondays meeting that ex-
port business 'is getting back TO where
it was before tho war;"