The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-03-14
STERLING FALL
BIG INFLUENCE
IN MANY DEALS
BY STUART p. WEST.

wall Street, New York, March II.
4--Today's markets again showed
stust how much OF a factor in calcu-
iations the recent fluctuations in
the foreign exchanges have been.
before New York was open for bus
mess, sterling drafts had touched
sA.27h, a decline of another 3
cents on the day. a loss of IL cents
from the top figure of March 1, and
only 10 cents above the low of the
wear reached in the middle of Janu-
airy. Yesterday the wheat market
had been sensitive to the drop in
exchange rates, but 1t made no re-
sponse to the further weakness
this morning. Cotton options went
lower again, but for reasons not
connected with the exchange move
Stocks and bonds had given no heed
at all yesterday to the break in
English, French and Italian rates,
and they were equally unconcerned
today. Even United Kingdom 5H
per cent bonds of 1922, which have
been dependent for their recent
high prices upon the fact that they
are a call on streling at $3.50, re-
covered sharply the greater part OF
the previous loss.
The plain reason why, with the
exception of the grain market. the
severe recoil in the exchanges had
had so little effect, is simply that
the downward movement of the past
fortnight is the result of a specu-
lative swing quite as excessive as
was the jump to s4.44A. The COM
plete figures on England's February
trade, taking into account the re-
exports of foreign goods, as well
as the ordinary exports of British
goods. made a still more startling
comparison with the imports. The
import excess was cut down to thu
total of $4,000 pounds. compared
with 100000 pounds in Deem
Der, 100000 pounds in February
1921, and constituting, in short, by
far the smallest excess in modern
British annals. There can be nc
question that this slender surplus
against English merchandise trade
is far outweighed by the invisible
credits, leaving a large balance or
the International ledger in favor OF
England and against the United
States. With this showing, disap-
peared whatever ground for skepti
cism there might have been regard
ing the reality of change in the
Anglo-Americen financial relations
indicated by last months 20 CEN
advance in sterling. AS for the par
which political developments have
been playing, it was clear that this
South African troubles were only {
perfunctory explanation for the
previous break when the decline
continued today in face of the new:
that the revolt in johannesburg re
gion had been put down. This news
was well received on the LondoI
stock market, where there was {
general advance in prices. The
fact that the descent of the eX
changes was unexpected showed
that it was not political, but the col
lapse of an overburdened specula.
ton plus a rush of new commercial
bills from export interests which
saw their market rapidly slipping
away as being the cause.
Again the stock market, as indi-
vidual shares were pushed ahead
ran into heavy profit-taking anG
the afternoon movement was
thrown into considerable irregular.
ity, but the dominant note was the
confidence of speculative syndi-
Gates that the situation warranted
continued efforts for higher prices