The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-01-25
TALL STREET
SLIDES BACK
TO NORMALLY
RY STUART p. WEST.

wall Street, New York, Jan. rs.
Yesterday the stock market had
49,. allowed to show what 1t could
= vbeu left to itself. Speculative
sstsrests had stopped applying
Circulating measures, the idea be-
!. - 10 see whether outside selling
rould follow. The results OF this
,.sf having proved satisfactory,
srsrations were resumed in a mod
! s,ate way today. The market did
=, get back to anything like the
. trading volume of week ago nor
as It as broad. But enough in
. Siyjdual stocks were taken UP at
ens stage or another to make it
elear that in professional judgment
,ss line of least resistance still lay
an the side OF rising prices.
8 There was very little in the way
N news to affect the trading one
raw or the other. But again the
market demonstrated that il has
n its face toward the future and
4 not interested in the disclosure,
no mater how melancholy, of the
earnings results for 1921. Sears
poebuck shares feel rather badly
an the revelation in the annual re-
mort that the company had lost
$4,000 900 on the year, but the
General stock list which year ago
ar even six months ago would have
heen upset by such a showing by
an enterprise SO typical of Amer
lean trade, today was wholly unaf-
fected. OF a piece with this evil
dence was the fact that among the
strongest stocks in the market to-
aav were shares of steel compan-
les which are about to issue their
quarterly and annual reports that
have long been looked for to make
extremely unpleasant reading.
1 The symptoms of easy call money
rates, noted yesterday, were con-
firmed today. While the renewal
was kept at 5 per cent, new money
was Immediately offered at AZ.
Recovery continued in the foreign
exchanges and this time included
German marks. French francs were
back over half the ground lost
within the last fortnight, that is,
they were quoted today exactly
half the way from the high at the
time the BRAND ministry was de-
feated and last Mondays low.
Whether or not this could be in
terpreted as meaning less uneasi-
ness over the new French program
vas doubtful. Certainly the drop
from $50 to sol cents in the two
weeks following the change of gov
eminent was a true measure Of
financial opinion on the subject.
But the possibility must still be re-
membered that with business senti-
ment throughout the world against
it, even a French ministry with q
huge majority may not be able to
carry through it's extreme policies
whether with regard to German rep
arations or to the other questions
upon which economic recovery de-
ponds.
All the steel stocks were strong
but the primo ipal advance came in
Crucible and Bethlehem undoubt-
eddy because the short interest in
these two was particularly large.
No connection could have been
traced between the buying of the
heCCi Oual anu LhC
views by the Iron trade journals,
which on the whole were rather
non-committal. No change has oc-
Cured from a week ago, but this
being the in-between season, none
was to be expected. The feeling
Is still as confident as ever that
when it comes time to prepare for
the spring business which will be
toward the end of February Il and
March things will be decidedly bet
ter. Meanwhile it is regarded as
encouraging that the mills should
have kept so well up to the Decem-
Der production. According to the
Iron Age this means a range of 40
to 80 per cent of active capacity in
the case of the steel corporation
and 20 to 40 per cent for the larg-
er independent companies. Corn
Products kept on with it's remark
able advance and there was a spec
acular jump in Dawson Chemicals
On the revival of the story that a
new company will be formed to
handle the silica-jel discovery and
mat the stock of this new concern
VIII be distributed gratis among
holders of Dawson stock. Shares
OF Fertilizer and chemical COM
panies which have previously been
backward were finally brought into
Ine. A number of the sugar stocks
made new highs for the present
movement. Their advance accom-
panied a further raising of refined
sugar quotations this time 10 cents
n the 100 pounds. On the other
aand the American Oil stocks were
IeVay on intimations of another cut
impending in the price OF crude
VI These special movements were
numerous enough to keep the gen
ssa1 market consistently strong but
aoI 70 suggest a renewal of the
speculative action which was I'M
yer way toward the close of last
week Rather it seemed probable
sat through reducing the short
,noerest the days operations had