The New York herald., 1922-12-27
FINANCIAL NEWS
AND COMMENT
Markets Featured by Large
Gains in Cotton Prices and
Strength in Libertys.

A violent advance in the cotton mar
/ ket and outstanding strength in United
States Government bonds were the
| features of yesterdays financial mar
kets. The stock market moved with
some irregularity, although many issues
| revealed an unexpected degree of
strength.
The sensational advance in cotton be-
gan with the opening of trading and
continued throughout the day. New
| high records for the year were regis
tered in all months, some positions get
ting within few points of 81 cents.
AS result Of yesterdays advance in
cotton the price of that commodity shows
an aggregate gain OF something like s12
| bale in few weeks Not only Is this
performance quite remarkable but 1t is
exceedingly significant.
The changed position of the producer
OF cotton since the beginning of 1922 is
worthy of comment. At the end of
January cotton was selling under 16
cents a pound, and at yesterdays top
| price 1t was more than II cents, or
nearly SIS. a bale higher. In relation
| to the purchasing power of the cotton
growing districts the advance In less
than year is tremendous and Is one
of the strongest Of many arguments ad-
vanced for expecting real prosperity in
the months to come. The statistical po-
stion of cotton at this time is rather
remarkable. Some statisticians have
| figured that under present conditions
the carry-over as of July /, 1928. would
be minus quantity II such thing
were physically possible.
1t Is interesting at this time to note
that the cotton market for the last ten
years has a record of invarable decline
| In January. For this reason there will
| be no small measure OF interest in the
course OF the market next month after
the large purchases which have occurred
! lately In such a way as to cause great
advances in parket quotations. Each
year since 1913 cotton prices in January
have slumped, sometimes In very vio-
lent manner. In 1913 for instance, the
price of the. May option declined from
1887 on January 3 to 1859 on January
20s In 1914. 1915 and 1915 the declines
were more moderate. but In 1917, 1e1S,
1920. 1921 and 1922 the slump from The
high early in the month to the low
ranged from 207 to 294 points In 1919
n break of 730 points occurred In May
cotton from January 2 to January 27.
Strength In bonds. particularly in the
Government list, reflected to a large ex-
tent continued preparations to meet the
reinvestment demand which is always
present in January. Trading in the in
vestment market was not on a particu-
Iarly large scale. but prices all day
were firm. The United States Treasury
AIS touched par for the first time since
the middle of October and showed an
advance of more than full l per cent.
over the low mark established soon
after they were offered for public sub
scription.
Operations in the stock market were
of more or less irregular character
Certain issues, notably Studebaker. made
some rather sensational gains That
leader of the motor group moved to a
new high record at 140N. Some of the
automobile speciality stocks. such as
Stewart Warner, Stromberg &c. were
likewise very strong. Otherwise the
market lacked movements of either In
terest or Importance. Railway reports
which came to hand continued to place
the November operations Of carriers in
favorable light and they no doubt
helped the market for railroad shares
TO some extent.
Foreign exchanges were very dull
and, with the exception of sterling and
lire. were inclined to slump. The rate
on London advanced fractionally and
Italian quotations We're few points
higher. Grain prices moved within mar
row limits on dull trading. A rather
heavy demand for call money boosted
the rate to 5h per cent. just before the
close.