Evening star., 1922-09-27
NEW YORK STOCKS
SLOW AND WEAKER
By STUART p. WEST.

NEW YORK, September o1.-Wi,h
the opening the stock market grad
ually became weaker. moving slowly
to lower levels and later on yielding
an average Of about two points
throughout the rails and the major
ity of the industrials. with the excep-
ton of the oils. which, as a group,
than anything else in the list.
nant influence, indicating as 1t did
Generalization in Greece and decid-
ediy warlike turn to the Turkish sit
uation.
Exchanges were lower, sterling be-
ing just about as weak as anything
else.
S. o. Group Firm.
The Standard Oil group was given
excellent support. and this had a
favorable effect upon other oils
Skelly Oil, Producers and fefnerS
and Phillips Petroleum scored some
advance. but did not hold full gain.
Naturally. in the face of the near
east news investors held off. being
encouraged in doing SO by the gem
eral weaker trend throughout the list.
Bears Busy.
The bears were busy making the
most Of their ammunition. searching
out here and there for weak spots
and adding their pressure thereto.
Railroads are making a poor show
ing for August, and yet this was to
be expected, but when the bears are
busy and the trend is downward little
consideration is given to the expected.
1t is the unexpected that hurts-the
expected may cause lower prices. but
nj har
indication Of extreme nervousness
anywhere today.
The Losses.
The losses averaged nearly : points
all around, with but scanty recovery
other than as specialized.
The steels. motors. equipments and,
in fact. the entire list was soft. the
bears meeting with small opposition
in their efforts to find profits. while
ent operation of months ago. took oc :
caston to sell and cash in on part of
their gains.
Independent Steels.
One Of the chief weak spots was the
SO called independent steel shares, the
stocks which were so violently ex-
plotted three and four months ago.
when the various merger negotiations
sion. The street had the report that
the opposition Of the Federal Trade
Commission might not prevent the
Republic -Midvale combination. but
that IT would compel modification of
the terms so that these would seem
less attractive from a market stand
point But. whether there was any
thing in this story or not, the fact was
that the speculative movement today
was correcting the extravagances of
a previous speculation. speculation
based upon a distorted idea OF what
the merger advantages in the shape of
lower costs would mean for the values
Of the constituent securities.
Poat-Strike Effects.
Another aspect of the stock market
was that 1t was finally registering the
effect of the great coal strike. which
it had ignored in the campaigns of
the spring and summer. This subject
was brought forward forcibly by the
passing OF the dividend on Pittsburgh
Coal common-an action which. as
was shown by the severe break in
the stocks. had been wholly unantfci-
pated.
It was suggested unpleasantly again
by the August report of the Reading
typical of the anthracite carriers
showing . decrease of 1881. 900 in
compared with the month last year.
SAeuy O1As
The sudden activity in Skelly Oil
at rising prices today caused some
people to think that an increase In
the quotations for midcontinent
crude was not far off. Skelly Oil
is q complete unit 1t has production
of around 1900 barrels a day. and
has refining capacity of 5000 barrels.
In addition to this, the company has
sixty-nine distributing stations. II
is reported getting premium of 80
cents a barrel on its oil produced In
the Burbank field. The situation IN
Skelly In recent months has under
gone a thorough change for the bet
ter. The banking interests are the
same as those behind Phillips
The weakness in Republic Steel wa
due to the belief that the merger
plans win have to be completely re-