The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-10-08

, shortage showed a large increase on the latest available weekly reports. Unfavorable Factors.
 The unafovorable factors are. as | before, the unsettled conditions abroad and the low prices for farm | products. particularly wheat, at home. l Dealing with the former the frank | discussion of the international debt problem by the American Bankers association this week was distinctly encouraging.
 As to farm prices, 1t is hard to see | how they can long resist the upward tendency apparent elsewhere.
 The bearing of all this on the se- l curity market is not hard to interpret. Approximate stabilization around present levels of quotations for the | highest grade of investment securi- 1 ties is indicated with the market | price of the second grade and more sponsiye to the outlook for the par ticIlar corporation, the securities of which are under consideration. Ger | tainly there was nothing to contra | dict this view in the price fluctua- tions of the week.
 Liberty Bonds Gain
 Liberty bonds regained much of the ground lost the week before but wero still leiGw the high prices for the l year. The best of railroad and indus | trial issues showed similar tenden- | cies. Atchison general 4s and Ameri- can Telephone and Telegraph collat- ereal trust 5s are examples. The | former sold between 91 and 92 all the week against the high for the year of over 95 and the latter between 9e and 99z against a high of over 100. l It must be evident that only a change in money market conditions can affect the price of this class of bonds. If the government should be able to float it's new loan on expect edly favorable terms the market for bonds like these would be stimulated; i; otherwise there seems no reason to expect any great advance at present.
 Speculative Bonds.
 The situation Is quite different with low grade and speculative bonds. Many of these are to 10 points be- low the high of the year. in most cases, without any corresponding change in the financial conditions of the debtor corporation. This has been particularly the case with rail- road bonds.
 Take the case of the Erie, for in- stance. Both the general 4s and the three seriesof convertibles, A, B, D, are selling some points below top price of 1922. Of course, the Erie, like all other coal carriers, suffered severely during the strike. But this does not take into account the great improve ment which may reasonably be ex- pected for the balance of the year. The continued payments of interest on all the Fries bonds is just as cer- tain today as 1t was when the market prices of the bonds were at the high earlier in the year.
 In the case of the St. Paul, the de- cline Is not so large but there Is even less reason. The St. Paurs earnings, while still leaving much to be desired, show gratifying improvement.
 No review of the week would be complete without some mention Gf the demonstrated ability to absorb new Issues. The sale of the Ameri- can Gas and Electric additional issue of debenture 6s Is a case in point. Offerings continue on a large scale. The totals for September show bends. notes and stocks issued to the amount of s2s2.351. 1000 against s2s6.- o14,6oo in August, and s255,5s1, 900 in September, 1921.