Omaha daily bee., 1922-05-11
Financial


4
New York. May i0.-in q market
where stock exchange prices indieat.
ed little but the diminished speeuls-
tive interest both OF professionals"
and public and in which wheat prices
failed 10 reflect any change OF view
because OF Tuesdays crop report.
foreign exchange was again the real
point OF interest today. Under what
seemed 10 be London's initiative the
sterling market rose in the early
hours full cent over the previous
days final rate and nearly &c above
Menday's lowest. At S4tS Il
passed last weeks high mark and got
within &c oi the low rate reached in
the first great fall OF rates dur
ing 1915. before the market for
European exchange had been stead
led by the Anglo French credit.
Considering the CONSERVATION with
which the $40 rate was regarded in
the market OF September. 1915. il
must be recognized that sterling is
still abnormally low, But points Of
view change rapidly nowadays in
such matters, II sterling is valued
today At rate lower than any one
in Lombard street or Wall street
would have imagined during the first
year OF the war. the present rate is
higher than any practical exchange
dealer would have dared to predict
in February OF 1920, or, for that mat
ter, in the early autumn OF 1921.
Recovery Under Way.
Two.ihirds OF tho maximum depreciation
has already been recovered. II 10 at least
possible that. = year from now. " NOT
at tho end Of the coming summer; ,,n INC
the low sterling rates Of this week. Prices
on tho stock exchange began with an ".
regular advance, which ended In u spell
This Was followed In tho afternoon by
downward movement. In which, quite
charsct.rlstically under all the eireum-
stances. United States steel shares took
the lead on the publication OF the COM
pany's largely increased bookings Most
stocks closed around the days lowest |
Net declines In the Industrial group ranged
in some cases from TO points, but
changes. as n rule. were only fractional,
Two or three statements showing the
drift Of Industrial affairs were published |
today, all % them pointing In the same
direction. One was the steel corporations |
which showed an Increase OF 602,ss5 tons
as compared with q month before. To |
match this increase. one must go back 10 /
January, 1920. Since the days OF maxi |
mum foreign orders wor war material be-
fore the United States declared war on |
Germany II has been surpassed only In |
that month and four other months OF
1919.
Steel Output Increases.
Along with this sdeiight on forward
business came the report of the counrrys
actual output OF steel in April. which was
the largest monthly production since No
vember. 1920. Pointing out that the aver
age daily output was II per cent greater
than that Of March. although March has
20 per cent over February, the
Iron Age makes the interesting computa-
tion that whereas in 1913 the countrys
and its total capacity 35,000,0OO. last
months production was at annual rate OF
36. .O00, 000. ...- N 4
In some ways even more significant OF
the quickening in general trade was to-
days report on car loadings for the final
week Of April. Considering that the coal
strike had given no sign Of weakening and
that cars loaded with coal numbered 6s,-
22s less than in the same week of 1921.
the fact that the eotal loadings should
have exceeded 1921 by 37,202 cars OF 5h
weeks record Is better than that of 1918
also. and study Of the figures shows that,
IL coal traffic had been at the same rats
as in the same week OF April, 1920, the
total loadings would have run more than
So 900 cars ahead Of the 1920 figure.
Naturally that means general traffic on
a much larger scale than two years ago.