Evening star., 1922-04-04
ACTIVE TRADING,
PRICES IRREGULAR
Liberty Bonds and Exchange
Score Gains-Much Profit
Taking in Studebaker.
BY STUART p. WEST.

NEW YORK, April New high
records for some OF the liberty bonds,
further advance in the foreign ex-
changes and heavy trading in stocks,
but with much more irregularity in
the price movement-these were the
main incidents in the financial mar
| kets today.
The tax exempt liberty 3hs, the
| convertible AXIS Of tho first loan. the
second AIS. and the fourth ANS all
reached new highs.
These were the leaders in another
day of general advance in the bond
list. which bore witness to the fact
that the investment demand was still
at its maximum.
In the rise Of sterling across the
$40 level again there was the nat
ural response to the overwhelming
vote of confidence given the present
| ministry In the house OF commons
last night The size Of the favoring
munity wonder what the basis had
been for the talk of an English po-
litical crisis, which has been heard at
intervals during the last few weeks
and which at times has had consider
able influence upon the exchange
market.
Two Announcements.
There were two interesting an
nounoements bearing directly upon
the stock market. One was the state
ment Of the Studebaker president
that the company's output during the
first quarter of the year ran 143 per
cent ahead of the first three months
of 1921 and that March was the
largest month in the history OF the
The other was the statement, made
at the annual meeting of Bethlehem
Steel stockholders, that there was
nothing In the recent Wall street re-
port that the dividend Of the Beth
iehem Steel common stocks might be
reduced.
The Studebaker news had been SO
we'll advertised ahead of time that its
market effect had been discontinued.
points within a week. 1t was not sur
prising that it should have had a
sharp recoil.
For an hour or so tho break in this
settled the entire market. But then
fresh buying came in in other direc-
tions and operations for rise were
! renewed in a number Of selected
stocks.
Cubans Firmer.
Among these were the sugars which
were influenced by an advance in the
price of Cuban raws. This advance
was slight but nevertheless signih-
cant as tending to uphold the view
| that such softening as has recently
occurred in the sugar market was due
to speculation.
Shake-Out in Studebaker.
The first approach to an old-fash.
ioned shake-out in the present market
| was staged today in studebaker. At
119k where 1t sold soon after the
opening this stock was up fifteen
points within a week and six points
from the Saturday closing. Naturally
| so wild a rise made for weakened
maket position. The people who have
been playing Studebaker are not
small folks. They have been large
traders who bought considerably low
| er down and have been pyramidtng on
| the handsome profits that were soil-
| ing up.
| The pyramiding scheme always
| calls for protective stop orders, these
orders being placed so as to follow
| the market up. The old phrase,
| "honeycombed with stops" undoubt-
! edly applied to the market for Stude-
| baker as it started this morning.
! Suddenly half way through the
| forenoon there came a rush OF profit
! taking, and these stop orders began
| to be caught. The effect was that
| for a few minutes Studebaker tum-
| bled like a house of cards. 1t took
only a quarter of an hour for the
stock to lose five points, and the jar
| was felt throughout the entire list