Omaha daily bee., 1922-05-10

By ALEXANDER DANA MOVES

| "ssnA Wes i$essA Wis.
New York. May 9-Ou, OF the con-
fused aud saeillaling movemen. in
nearly all OF iodsy's markets. imam.
elal and commercial. the only intel
ligible DRIFT was that OF foreign sxa
change rates. Sterling, and with Il
French nd Italian exchange. re-
gained most OF Mondays losses. Con-
sidefing the part that pure speeula-
ton plays ~ the exchange market.
wall street Vas very possibly right
IN aseribing this recovery 10 the Q ef
night cables reporting the delegates
indignant denial OF the story that the
British prime minister had threat
ened the breaking OF the French
entente. These varying versions OF
language exchanged between states
men whose nerves are oyerstfained
ID month OF diplomatic ifriiations.
arc taken by most people as neither
indicating ltor ioreshadowing events.
but as rejecting moods. But there
always will be some one who thinks
that some one else will imagine H.
This would perhaps be quite enough
TO explain Mondays decline in
foreign exchange rates. as vel as
today's recovery. Sterling got back
TO S4.i4 l-s. as against Mondays low
point OF Si.45 is. francs to OIL cents
as agains, sos. and other rates ae-
cordingly.
Trading ESrstir.
No reasons appeared for believing that
,eds,'s stock market. any more than
Mondays, was influenced by this ess
changing Of compliments st Genoa. In
business done. today's market was small
Ter than that OF the day before, and u
appeared TO be wholly In the hands OF
professional spectators. The results We're
entirely confused. some stocks, even 10
the ''oii group would ba falling while
others were rising. A break OF some
on. by reptition OF t~e mornings con-
Trajectory movements. The day ended
with more declines than advances and
with n few Of the Losses considerable. Hut
such n market has little serious meaning.
Most other markets were IN the same
condition. Prices for investment bonds
dispiay,d something more OF uncertainty,
with numerous fractional losses, especially
among the railway bonds. which had late
iy risen sharply. The cotton market be-
gan by rising violently until several ''fu-
ture delivery months reached prices
touched only once or twice In all OF last
k.t was back below Mondays closing be-
fore the day was over. wheat for the
May delivery was at one time down '1c.
then up INC, ending a cent higher Tor
the day while the other delivery months
had declined.
Report as Expected.
with wheat as with -tocks this erratic |
performance clearly indicated doubt as 10
the actual speculative position: which II
a matter of no very vital concern. But
the wheat market may also nave been
making alternate guesses at the govern
ment crop report which was not given
out until after the close OF business. That
report was pretty' much what the trade
had looked for. The losses In acreage
through "winter killing was much be.
yond the average. but even that los. lei,
the area under the growing winter wheat
considerably larger than what was ssti-
mated In May OF 1920. or In the three
years, 1915 to 1918. inclusive. or In any
year before the war. The crops average
condition OF s3h per cent comparing WIN
7sI In April. was higher than the TRACE
had generally expected, and so were the
governments figures OF indicated yieio.
which were only 2.23s.oo0 bushels unoer
last years actual harvest.