The New York herald., 1922-12-10
FINANCIAL NEWS
AND COMMENT
Average Of Industrial Shares
Up a 1-2 Points, While
Rails Fell In Week.

The rally In stocks which began in tho
middle Of the week was maintained
through yesterdays session, although
the list was forced to absorb consider
able profit taking In the last hour Of
trading. which tonk 6nal prices well be-
low the highs. While the character of
last weeks upward swing was not par
ticularly impressive in that It appeared
to be almost entirely the result Of pro-
fessional operations and short cover
Ing. It was. nevertheless sufficiently
great to create a materially better feel
ing in the financial community. There
is probably some belated tax selling to
como into the market, but 1t Is quite
likely that by far the greatest portion
of that kind Of pressure long since has
been relieved.
A study Of the movement of stock price
averages last week reveals that the
buying which has marked up the gen.
eral list Of stocks has been confined
entirely to the industrials. In fact. the
railroad shares at yesterdays close were
fractionalN under the lows Of last Mon
day, whereas the average of Industrial
shares showed an advance Of more then
~ points to tho high point yesterday.
There Is no denying that the feeling OF
extreme optimism concerning the imme-
diate future Of the railroads OF the
country which was so prevalent but two
or three months ago has dwindled and
given place to q more or less gloomy
prospect. For q time there was scarcely
speculative account which did not In
clude a very substantial sprinkling OF
railroad stocks.
It was generally accepted in the a.
nancial district that the bull market
which got under way more than a year
ago would not reach it's climax until
the rails had run up sharply and were
once more in line with the industrials.
Since the election In November how
ever, sentiment has shifted very alb
ruptly and the liquidation of railroad
stocks has been very large. The aban-
donment of pool operations in one Of
the leaders at time when the pool had
a large amount of stock on its hands
only served to increase the pessimism.
The bond market continued strong
In the short session, with United States
war loans and the new Treasury 4Hs
in substantial demand. All Liberty bonds
added to the gains recorded on Friday
in reflection Of the favorable manner
In which the terms Of the new Govern
ment loan had been received.
Trading In the stock market was not
especially active, except in q few par
ticular stocks In which the shorts were
run to cover. Notable among these were
National Lead and Allied Chemical. the
former advancing six points to 1241A.
Otherwise the market was comparatively
dull and had 1t not been for rather
sharp increase In offerings just before
the close. representing large profit TAX
Ing on shares bought early this week.
total transactions would have been very
small.
The weekly Clearing House bank
statements showed q decidedly more
since the statement Of November IL the
actual bank statement for the week
showed an excess reserve. On each of
the three preceding weeks the Clearing
House institutions reported an aggregate
deficit In reserve. Loans were down
nearly sS0.000.00o as compared with a
week ago.
Demand deposits likewise dropped
mare than s66.o00.000 While these
changes were occurring. however, the
member banks were building up their
reserve deposits at the Federal Reserve
Bank and as a result the end of the
week showed an increase of more than
s22, 100000 In that item.
Commodity markets were Arm. but
trading was dull. Foreign exchange
rates moved within narrow limits.
The statement OF the United States
Steel Corporations untitled tonnage was
no surprise. 1t was generally accepted
that any change from last months fg-
ures would be comparatively small.