The New York herald., 1922-06-24
FINANCIAL NEWS
AND COMMENT
Diverse Trend in Stocks, With
Some Rails StrOng-Break
in Mex Pete Shares.

Yesterdays session on the Stock Ex-
change was a comparatively duh affair.
with extraordinary strength in some of
the rail stocks and a few specialties and
irregularity throughout the rest OF the
list. Mexican Petroleum. the sensational
advances of which have been the feature
of the market for the last week, struck
the reverse trail yesterday and broke to
a low Of 176 for net loss of 71a points.
The refusal of most brokers to accept
short sales of the stock, the slackening
OF the short covering movement and the
started by the Stock Exchange authori-
ties into transactions of the last few
days left traders considerably in doubt
as to the status of the issue and most of
them preferred to leave it alone. Never
theless, the more hardy operators con-
tinued to buy and sell the shares in
sufficient volume to roll up total trans
actions for the day of around $4,000
shares, or about one-quarter of the
amount of stock outstanding.
The move in railroad shares which be-
gan in the closing hours of Thursdays
session was maintatIed yesterday. with
Lackawanna and New York Central as
leaders. A gain Of almost points was
made by the former, while Central ad-
vanced nearly points to 93%. News
developments were entirely lacking so
far as the railroads were concerned. but
the buying was consistent and indicated
a revival Of confidence in the future for
the carriers. It also gave some idea of
how Wall Street views the strike stu
alton at this time. The financia, COM
munity, while divided I'm it's opinion as
to whether the strike will actually de-
velop. is almost unanimous in the belief
that the roads will not be materially in
jured as a result.
Moro than ordinary activity was no.
ticeable yesterday in the market for
copper shares. Because Of the failure
of these stocks to follow through the
advances which have been started from
time to time in recent months they are
not regarded favorably and whenever
buying of a satisfactory character
makes its appeara q n the coppers
it has been found difficult to get fol.
lowing. The copper industry has pro-
Rressed IN remarkable degree from the
deplorable state to which II had fallen
year or more ago a0a vet -
stocks have never given the same good
account of themselves as have those of
other industries in which the improve
ment has been no greater.
Bonds. with the exception Of rail-
road and Liberty issues, hesitated
somewhat in their upward course. al
though the tone Of the market most of
the day was one of firmness. Liberty
issues closed with no great changes
from Thursdays final prices. The
Fourth 4As. however. made new high
at 100.24, reacting about 10 points later
in the day. There is nothing ON the
surface OF things at present which
would indicate that the upward move
in the bond market. especially in the
Government issues. has gone too far.
or even far enough for that matter.
Money conditions are in no way
changed. except for what further ease
may be indicated by the Reserve Banks
rediscount rate cut. II was hard for
some to understand why the rate for
call money, after Neing at and under
per cent. all week, should suddenly
stiffen to per cent. within forty-eight
hours after the rate cut was announced.
The answer. however. lay in the de-
mand for funds for over the weekend
and the lessening OF available cash
through preparations the banks are now
beginning to make for July 1 require
ments. which will include heavy divi-
dend and interest payments Cotton
was exceedingly weak yesterday. espe.
cially IN the last hour, on favorable
weather reports and on condition re-
ports showing a big Improvement.