Evening star., 1922-05-15
WERE NOT
GIVEN SUPPORT
Natural Reaction on This
Group After Developments.
Coppers Taken Up.
BY STUART p. WEST.

NEW YORK, May l5.-Prices start
ed on the stock exchange today about
where they had left off Saturday.
The old-time precedent of big
Monday opening in rising market
was not followed.
Instead, heavy realizing sales at
once set in from speculative quar-
ters, bearing with particular force
against the favorites OF last weeks
steel trading and steel merger stories.
These stocks. within fifteen to twen-
ty minutes, fell from two to three
points, and their decline for Will e
unsettled the entire list.
But as has been the practice all
along. when weakness developed In
any one direction, it was promptly
offset by a fresh buying demonstra-
t!on in other directions.
AS the steels fell behind. the cop
pers were taken up, partly because
these stocks had previously partici-
pated only moderately in the upward
movement and partly because OF
genuine conviction that the>market
for the copper metal is at the be-
ginning Of revival similar to that
Of the steel market two months ago.
Exchanges Steady.
The foreign exchanges were steady
and French government and municipal
issues, which had been more or less
under pressure for the last week OF so'
had quite a pronounced recovery.
This seemed to bear out the statement
expressed in the latest cables from
Paris that the failure at Genoa mad not
disheartened the markets there because
it had all along been thoroughly ex-
pected.
AS for the new Hague conference,
called for June, to take up the Russian
question again, financial opinion ana
any reaction there may be 10 the mat
ter in the markets will naturaiiy pe
postponed until it is certain the united
States will not accept the invitation TO
ioin in the deliberations. Such refusal,
according to the prevailing European
view, would foredoom this second gath
ering also.
Action Logical.
The behavior of the steel stocks In
the DAVIS market was consistent Win
the usual Wall street policy a1ter the
good news" is out.
The BethlehemL Lackawanna merger
has been accomplished The otner
and larger combination. which In
cluded Republic Iron and steel ana
Midyale. has, from the best informa-
tion, virtually been completed.
Therefore 1t is not surprising that
people who have had advance kno"i-
edge of these deals should have been
their profits.
One or two of the oil stocks-Stand-
ard OH of California and TRANSCRIPT
mental Oil-were bid up. but they
were exceptions, involving apparently
a special cause.
Speculation in oil shares generally
has rather been killed by the om-
cial figures on the gasoline supply,
which, although they only cover up
to April l, show that the reserves
were still altogether abnormal, de-
spite the improvement in the de-
mand since the first Of the year.
Coppers Taken Up.
Today's division of interest into the
cooper group was no surprise. There
are merger plans in the air affecting
the coppers, which, now tnat the steel
mergers have been pretty well worked
out, are likely to be taken up. Sec
ondly, there is the plain upward ten
dency manifested in the price Of the
copper metal for the last week or
more, resulting from an unusually
heavy demand for domestic account.
Thirdly, there ie the fact. compelling
from a speculative point of view, that
the coppeIs are one of the few sets
of stocks which have not yet been
brought into the limelight-