The New York herald., 1922-06-17
FINANCIAL NEWS
AND OMMENT
Stock Market Lapses Again
Into Lassitude-Slieht
Rally at the Close.

roT the greater part OF yesterday
stoc.S market session success attended
sreculative effort to force quoted
values downward, and a fairly brisk
short covering movement in the last
hour did little more than lift the in
dustrial list slightly above their lowest
prices. There were. nevertheless. sew
eral strong spots. notably Mexican
Petroleum, Pan American Petroleum,
American Car & Foundry and Brook
lyn Rapid Transit-a diversity indicat-
ing that speculation was rather aim
less and suggesting that traders de-
sired to draw attention from the weak
ness elsewhere by causing a few issues
70 breast the bearish tide At the end
Of the day most of the active shares
were q point or more lower than the
DAY before. Factors with an applca-
tion TO stocks were apparently the same
as in preceding days Of this week.
those with the greatest bearing on the
decline being comprised in short SELL
ing. the uncovering of stop loss orders
and general impression that the corr
rection of the overdone speculation for
The rise in the early spring was still
heing pursued.
The stock market was of sort which
neither reflects outside occurrences nor
outlines the play of economic happen
ings. The weekly mercantile discus
SONS were. if anything. more cheerful
than in the week before, showing that
both production and distribution Of
goods were gaining in volume in most
sections of the country. Examination
Of the Federal Reserve statement cer-
tainly displayed no signs of monetary
stress; on the contrary, 1t was made
plain through the decline of redis-
counts and the contraction of currency
TO the smallest amount outstanding this
year that the member banks were well
able to handle requirments of their GUS
toners without recourse to the reserve
institutions. Call money eased yester-
day from 3la to per cent.
The cotton market was interesting be-
cause of the ability 1t showed to breal,
away from the depressing influence OF
stocks The 90 to "a point rally In
future options after a rather sluggish
and uncertain start may have been a
response to the May consumption
figures issued on Wednesday. but more
probably reflected hurried short covering
stirred up by news of new and heavy
rainfall in parts of the crop belt July
wheat also gained ground, following a
dip to new low price level at $1.0S%
a bushel and the final net gain Of / Il
cents bushel represented the active
bidding Of Spectators for contracts to
replace those they sold short In recent
days.
If sterling exchange could have been
considered by itself, without relation to
Continental rates, the theory for the
days decline might have been vested In
the thought that the Bank of England s
discount rate cut and the unusually low
open market quotations for money In
London were driving funds to the
United States. But weakness charac-
terized most of the European exchanges.
sterling's reaction OF q cents running
parallel to the sagging OF francs to
S.73lk. actually the lowest quotation OF
1922 and SO points under this years
highest quotation. Marks reached
S1lh, which was not far from the lowest
rate of the post war period. The broad
reaction indicated that speculation for
the fall of prices had gained confidence
since the dissolution Of the bankers
conference in Paris. The foreign trade
figures for May showed that commerce
was moving in a way to support rather
than depress the exchanges, and there Is
no evidence that exports from American
ports have thus far in June leaped ahead
OF the imports of merchandise.