The New York herald., 1922-08-15
FINANCIAL NEWS
AND COMMENT
Professional Sellers Take
Stock Prices Lower on I'm
favorable News.

A more or less general weakness char
acterized all financial markets yester-
day. Stocks were under pressure most
OF the day and in the bond market there
was lack OF aggressive buying, which
resulted in a drift toward lower levels.
no particularly urgent selling. Cotton
declined sharply and the selling or
grain. which has been so much in evil
dence since early last week, continued.
And yet the weakness in the markets
was not particularly usrprising in the
face of the unfavorable news develop
ments: in fact. there were those who
were inclined to view as an evidence
of real underlying strength the fact that
the declines did not go further. Ger
tainly there were no developments to
encourage the buying of securities
while news OF a discouraging character
was rather plentiful.
In the first place. Wall Street had
been led to believe over the week end
that a settlement of the present strike
difficulties was close at hand. An un-
pleasant influence, therefore. was Gre
ated by news dispatches indicating that
little had been accomplished toward
bringing the railroad factions together.
The situation, with regard to the coal
strike. however. was considerably more
cheerful. with an invitation extended by
the anthracite coal operators and ac-
ceptei by the miners representatives for
a conference next week. Predictions
were freely made that coal production
will be going along apace within an
other firtnight Meanwhile. there were
reports Of further walkouts on some OF
the big railroads, especially In the West.
Private advices on the railroad situa-
tion were more encouraging than the
news reports. however. One message
from high official source put l. that
the labor situation has got to be met
squarely soon, but big men feel that
the present is not a propitious time
for a showdown, and a compromise
agreement on the present points Of con-
troversy is expected within the week.
Such a development would undoubtedly
prove a big constructive factor. for 1t
would go long way toward releasing
tremendous volume of business which
is now held in check by reason of the
railroad uncertainty.
Professional selling was a large part
of yesterdays stock market. While it
is possible that the lower prices Of the
last hour may have reached some stop
loss orders and thus brought about
not otherwise have been called upon
to absorb, short selling and professional
pressure applied because that happened
to be the line of least resistance. was
readily discernible.
Reports from abroad that the confer
ence of Premiers had broken up in q
deadlock and that the foreign delega-
tions were leaving for home added
somewhat to the feeling of uneasiness
Earlier dispatches had indicated that
something really constructive could be
expected from this conference. There
were many. however. who chung hope
fully to cables which declared that Of
ficials of the conference declined to
admit its failure.
Foreign exchanges were lower, with
particular pressure directed against
French francs, following the report of
the failure of the conference. Sterling
was off slightly from Saturdays close,
but business was extremely small.
In the bond market the tendency was
toward lower levels. but there was no
great activity. Cotton declined abruptly
for a total of approximately 80 points.
This was In part a natural reaction
from the enthusiastic up bidding of
last week, but was also due to more
favorable weather reports. Grain con-
tinued its downward swing.
Call money declined from an open
ing figure OF 4 per cent. to a close at
per cent. Business on the floor OF
the exchange was com mparatively small
and the demand for accommodations
light. At the end of the session there
was a substantial amount of money,
for which there were no borrowers.