San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-01-29
PROFIT TAKING is
PRINCIPAL FEATURE
OF STOCK EXCHANGE
French 8 Per Cent Loans
Break Through 80
for First Time.
BY STUART z. WEST.

Copyright 1928, by The San Antonio Light.
New York, Jan. ga Characters
tic Monday market following a week
in which the principal changes have
been upward prevailed on the New
York stock exchange today. 1t is the
custom under these circumstances for
the trading contingent to take profits,
especially il prices start in strong. This
was precisely what happened.
The Street was diverted for an hour
or so by number of special buying
operations, particularly in the rails. Ii
was good tactics to bring forward the
backward rail list when it was desired
to have screen for selling in other
directions. Quite a show of strength
was maintained for while in the ST,
Pauls. Is. & o., which was still feeling
the effect Of the remarkable December
report, Southern Railway, where the
pool was still active, Rock Island and
Wabash A. Buying in the last named
was founded upon the good showing in
current earnings.
A few of the industrials were notice
ably strong. American Smelling was
one of these. This being the only one
of the copper group TO pay attention
to the advance in the copper metal to
the 10 cents level. Toward noon, how
ever, prices began to slip, Special weak
ness developed in Pacific Oil on reports
that the company would have to do some
new financing in order to carry its big
reserves of oil and that TO accomplish
this, it would have to abandon divi-
dends.
Other oil shares were dragged down
half a point TO a point while the selling
in Pacific Oil was in progress. Steel
and Tube preferred broke badly, but for
no reason other than that with the com.
pletion of the recent merger, there was
no incentive TO continue speculative op
erations for the rise.
The financial markets today gave by
far the strongest impression they have
yet given OF their misgiyings of the
French venture into the Ruhr.
In London. French internal loans
were freely offered again when the ex-
tcrnal loans dealt in in New York had
another and still more ugly break. The
French 7 lbs, which a week before
the beginning Of the French military
campaign. were selling at 95. touched
SIS IL in the market today. The per
cent loan was equally demoralized, hav-
ing sold as high as 9S SIS during the
first week Of January. it brok through
90 for the first time today. The gen.
eral unloading Of French government
securities was accompanied by almost
equal weakness in French exchange.
The lowest these rates touched all last
year was GIT in November they vir-
tually duplicated this low level this
morning.
The break in French securities can
not be set down as a piece of market
manipulation. II it had been it would
have been stopped long before by the
banking support which has commonly
appeared on occasions of this sort.
The plain inference from the action
of today's exchange and government
bond markets. was that the financial
community even more dubious than II
mad been last week as TO the success OF
the French invasion.
The security markets, as they have
done all along, today went about their
business almost il they were ignoring
the over-Sunday European news alto
gether. This was not only true o. the
market in New York, it was equally
true Of the London stock exchange. In
both instances there was more or less ir-
regularity in the price movement. Lon
don was selling the oil shares while
buying South African and home issues.
New York was favoring the railway
shares while doing certain amount OF
quiet selling in industrials. But the
main point was that in both markets
the fluctuations were nothing more than
might have been expected under normal
circumstances