New-York tribune., 1922-05-20
Stock Prices
| Rise Despite
Profit Taking
Specialties, Oil, Motor and
EquipmentIssu Buoyan.;
MoneyEasementC CivesPrin.
: cipal Impetus for Advance

What represented the most impress
sfve performance since the recent re-
action was checked was given by the
stock market yesterday when in active
trading and in the face of consider
able volume of proft-taking sales
prices forged ahead throughout almost
the entire list from fraction to a
point or more. TIE session lacked the
element Of the spectacular which the
special movements based on steel
merger news and rumors had pre-
sented, but any loss in this respect was
more than balanced by the general
character OF the rise and the evidence
that 1t was more firmly grounded
Both industrial and railroad stocks
shared in the advance, which carried
the average price Of fifty issues up
more than q point to the highest
level of the year.
The breadth and spirit of specula-
tion yesterday were determined by the
fact that its inspiration was derived
not from any happening bearing upon
single stock or group of stocks but
from further easement in money as
registered in the charges for specula-
tive funds. There had been talk for
some time in the Street that per cent
time money was coming, but that this
level should be broken, even for the
short periods. was hardly on the cards.
The arrangement of thirty day loans at
3& per cent and the Offering Of money
up to ninety days at per cent
coupled with the lowest call loan rate
since March H. furnished an excellcn
ground work for the bidding up Of
stocks. Confirmation OF money and
credit Improvement was read in the
weekly statements of condition of the
Federal Reserve System and the New
York reserve bank.
AS might be expected, steel and cop
per stocks were not so favored by
traders as some other classes of
Issues. A movement that is directed
largely by professional operators is
rarely as permanent as where public
buying controls and the opportunities
JOE plCiitS III tutSS groups SSSlUSO lOl l
the time about exhausted. Both were
frm to slightly higher, but buoyancy
was reserved for specialtes, the oil,
motor and equipment issues, and for
some of the rails. Announcement of
the withdrawal from merger negotia- |
tions by the Youngstown Sheet and Tube /
c. pany was deferred until we'll after |
the markets close and there was no
previous intimation of this develop !
ment in the course of prices. The !
bearing of this action upon the dis
cussions will be closely watched.
There was better buying Of bonds |
than for some days past and specula-
tive issues particularly responded to
the easement in money. The market |
for investment securities, however, oc-
cupied strictly secondary place dur
ing the day.
Quiet and order were the rule in
the foreign exchanges as the Genoa
conference drew to close. Sterling
f1uctuated narrowly and closed with a
trifing gain. Other Allied exchanges |
and marks lost some ground, but their
recession was not important.
Both wheat and cotton prices went
lower. A sharp break in the May
a late recovery leaving prices at the
finish from q to 2ls cents lower
Weather was more encouraging from
the standpoint of cotton production
and prices recorded a net loss of II
to % points.