The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-09-17
NEW OFFERINGS ON NEW YORK MARKET EAGERLY ABSORBED
Price Trend For Past Week Throws Little Light Upon Immediate Future of
 the Market
By BYRoN sEI,I.ER
Special Correspondent of The Age-HeraI Copyright is22. by The Axe-Herald,

New York, September 16.-The
 price trend for investment securities during the week did not throw much
 bond market. Money rates showed
 an inclination to harden prices Of
 higher grades of listed investment
 bonds which seemed to be stabilized
 unlisted securities about the prime
 quality of which there could be no question were in urgent demand, however. New offerings. also on a new low level. were eagerly absorbed Take four railroad bonds of the highest quality. for example. and cur
 rent quotations will be found at about the high level of the year or slightly below 1t. New York Central mortgage 3i6s sold this week at Sl 4 against a high for the year of SS, Atchison general 4s sold at 93 against high of 95B, Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, Illinois division, 1as sold at S4A against a high of S5, Central railroad of New Jersey 5s sold at
 
 All these bonds are legal invest
 ments for savings banks In New
 York state and are considered the best of their class. For the present, at least, investors in this grade Of security do not seem ready to ad-
 vance their bids much above the market
 First Securities Strong
 IL is equally true, however, that 1t
 Is perfectly possible to dispose of large blocks of such first grade bonds without any shading of the price And . securities which yield a half per cent higher. say to 61a per cent. have been very strong all the week, provided always there could be no doubt about the investment standing
 of tho security. Even bonds fully taxable were in demand.
 New offerings told the same story. Take. for instance. the new issue of the Illinois Central equipments pri- vately placed by Kuhn, Loeb & These certificates were put out
 A. per cent rate to yield
 4so to 4.95 per cent. This Is
 the lowest rate since the war. Prob ably the improved credit of the rail- roads in general and the unquesS-. tioHable financial strength of the Illinois Central in particular. were factors. but the testimony to the | position of the money market was
 equally plain.
 Discrimination Noted
 | Another notable instance was that of the new special preferred stock of the General Electric company, on when issued basis to yield per
 cent flat. Bear in mind that this is purely investment security. The | dividend rate Is fixed at per cent. It has no speculation whatever It Is simply the unsecured obligation of the General Electric company to pay per cent dividends and no | more and that only after all interest charges have been met on General Electric indebtedness.
 1 The same careful discrimination as 1 to quality runs through all the se- | curity quotations of the week. The 1 foreign group affords a good illus l tration. The French issues have been notably weak. In fact. with the exception of the obligations Of newly established nations in southeastern | Europe, such as Czecho- -Slovakia, 1 the French bonds are selling at a price to give higher return than any other foreign government issue. The reason for this is very plain. The French financial problem Is diff ficult in the extreme and the future 1 is obscure. It is not enough to point out that the French reputation for | meeting obligations Is of the very best and the outstanding external
 loans are 8 very small percentage of the total indebtedness. The quota tations tell the story of the uncer- tainty in the investors mind. Swiss Bonds Attractive Swiss bonds and Canadian issues are outstanding examples of an at- tractiveness, the lack of which Is so evident on the French securities. New Canadian 5s of 1852 sold this week at par American investors as rule
 have no more doubt of the security of Canadian bonds than they have of that of their own Liberties. Swiss Ss sold at 121. At this price the current yield is 66 per cent and the maturity yield Is 6.5 per cent This looks high until it is remembered that Swiss Ss are callable on July l, 1880. at 105. If the European situation continues to improve there Is no reason to doubt that the government of Switzerland will take advantage of this option. and a bond bought today at 121 and redeemed at 105 in eight years yields 5.25 per cent. The difference in yield
 
 bonds is not so great after all. It is this same possibility of re- demption at fixed price which oper- ates to keep down the market quota tions for many otherwise very desir- able securities. Among bonds a not able instance is that of the Bell Tele- phone of Pennsylvania Is selling around 10sh. This is one of the best of the utility bonds. It gives a yearl current yield of 61z per cent and if allowed to run to maturity it still yields 6.S per cent.
 Bond Is CnIlabIe
 But this bond is callable on any in- terest day after 60 days notice at 10711. If the New York Telephone company can sell at 6h pen cent pre- ferred stock at par and have 1t go to 109 in the open market almost i'm mediately there seems no good reason why another equally strong subsid-