Evening star., 1922-06-23
FIRM UNDERT0NE
SHOWN IN TRADING
Days Movements Again Re-
fleet Professional Char
acter of Market.
Ry STU ART p. WEST.


Ry STU ART p. WEST.
| Special Dispatch to The Star
NEW YORK, June 23-There was
, nothing of consequence about todays
/ dealings on the stock exchange eX
| Ccpt they indicated again how com
| rlctely the market is dominated by
/ the class of professional traders who
| rush to buy one day and sell the
! next. For a while the buying move
, mcnt which had been in progress at
! Thursdays close kept on. The de-
! cline in Mexican Petroleum which fol-
! lowed the announcement that the
! stock exchange committee was in
| vestigating it's recent spectacular rise
was for a time offset by rapid up
! tIidding of the Pan American stocks
, This on the theory that they were
| selling out of line with the Mexican
| shares. for which the Pan-American
| had originally given two for one in
| its own stock. Operations for the
! rise in these and a few other in
| lustrtaalS continued during for. noon
| n 1t desultory way.
Take Selling Side.
Then. as it was evident that no out
sue interest was attracted. traders
came to the selling side AS usually
| harpens when everybody decides to
| sell at once in a market in which
! support from the short interest has
been severely weakened, prices slid
off pretty sharaply.
I The investment market. in contrast
to the speculative market. continued
to feel the stimulus given by the
reduction in the New York federal
| reserve rates. Liberty bonds went up
again, with one or two new high
records. What was more noticea BILE
| was the keener demand for high
grade railway bonds. This was dis
| .inctly more of feature than on
| Thursday. There were advances in
this group of a half point to a point
| in number Of instances.
| In word. there was more warrant
! for saying today than there had been
on the previous day that the rest
of the investment list was inclined
! to follow the lead of the United
states war loans. In the money mar
| ket once more the reaction to the
! federal reserve announcement was
| not felt in "a positive shading of rates
! but rather in increased offerings at
| the old quotations Of time money, and
! an increased demand by the banks
! for commercial paper 1t was one
OF the most active days SO far in the
paper mark'~ with keen inquiry
for prime bills at 4 per cent.
This, of course. conforms with the
4 per cent quotation on federal re-
serve rediscount but il is doubtful
whether the banks with their own
abundant surpluses will wish to avail
| themselves yet awhile of the redis-
count privilege
Foreign Exchange Down.
The foreign exchanges came down
again. with especial weakness in
continental rates French exchange
in fact. was down very close to- its
low point of week ago and so
We're German marks. Sterling. while
still about cents away from last
weeks low, was off 10 cents from
the seasons high. touched only a
fortnight ago
Pressure against London drafts
come chiefly as the customary prepa-
ration at this time of the year for
financing the foreign purcha ses of the
new grain and cotton crop With
French and German exchange on the
oth2r hand. the weakness is almost
wholly reflection of uncertainty as
20 iermany's ability to meet the
coming reparations installment
Mexican Petroleum's decline was
checked after the stock had come
down I points from Thursdays close
or 10 points from its extreme high.
AS soon as the break in this leader
pended in other directions and prices
began to pick up again.
Mexican Pete Star Attraction.
Those who had expected fireworks
in Mexican Petroleum following the
investiga tion launched by the Stock
Exchange were disappointed There
was some selling of the stock but no
such hurried throwing over of spec
ulative holdings that people had
p1 WI hn hDI
ing that the 50-point rise in the last
week was nothing more than a tre-
mendous squeeze of shorts. To prove
that this was a fallacy the PAN
American stocks We're taken in hand
and became the feature of the market.
Inasmuch as they were originally
exchanged for Mexican Petroleum.
two for one. they ought theoretically
to be selling at half the latter's price.
but, of course. they have been far
out Of line on this basis of calcula-
, tion. Partly today'S move in the
Pan-Americans was designed t, close
up the gap and partly. It had in
view the s25.000.0o0 odd paper profit
which the Pan n-American now has on
it's Mexican stock. carried on its
books al 500 a share.
sprcinlties Engage Attention.
Traders who have been making good
profits in Mexican Petroleum have been
bul .iis tItSe hi'o "eIleidl Asphalt ',n'
Royal Dutch. 1t was switching of this
sort away from the Mexican speciality
into the two new favorites that was
mainly responsible for their advance
today. Mail order stoclls-Sears. Roe
buck and Montgomery Ward-were more
active at advancing prices on reports
Of steadily increasing earnings.
Pacific Gas and Electric made a new
high record. crossing 73h. This ad-
vance was thought to be h" way of
preparation for another extra stock
dividend. The company pays regularly
, i'm cash So but il has been the policy
when earnings were as good as they are
now to make additional distributions in
stock. The last dividend of this sort
. ne Gent Maid Las. January