Evening star., 1923-11-28
PRICES CONFUSED
| |NSTOCK MARKET
Maxwell Break Great Sur
prise-Oil Shares Weak.
!, Some Advances.
BY ART l.. WEST.

BY STUART T.. WEST.
Special Dispatch to The star.
NEW YORK. November 2S.-RealiZ-
Ing sales We're very heavy all through
the stock market today. Operations
for the rise continued in a few spe-
cialties under pool direction, hut
elsewhere the new buying was not
sufficient to maintain the buoyancy
of other days.
4 lot of people had been hurt by
the break in Maxwell Motors stocks
following the failure of the deal with
Studebaker. Seldom has the specu-
latiVe community been more conti-
dent of anything than ii was that
Maxwell would be taken over on
terms which would warrant con-
siderably. higher prices for the
stocks. Liquidation by these sur
prised spectators continued in the
market today and had an msettlng
effect
Erie shares We're strong for a
time. and the Standard dividend pay
ers of the railway group held up
fairly well. But. on the whole, the
effort to enlist public interest in the
railway section has not been SHIN
ing success 50 far The response to
the October traffic figures has been
disappointing.
oil shares Get Chill.
The market for the oils received
Il chill in the Offering of the Sl2.U0O,-
900 n-American bonds, and in the
report that Marland Oil would be
the next to come out with hnan-
cial program.
1t has been realized for some time
that the oil companies would nave
new financing to do to carry over
their largely inc ceased supplies, which
could not be profitably marketed un-
der present conditions. But these
new security announcements were
hardly conducive to speculative en-
thuSlaSm.
Prominent among the specialtieS in
which buying operations We're active
We're International Cement. National
Biscuit and Inland Steel.
Only last April Inland Steel put
through its recapitalization plan,
under which the new $25 par stock
was sold a S4l.50 a share. Since then
the stock has sold as low as 81. The
desirability of recovering this loss.
from the standpoint OF the company 5
prestige. would seem 10 indicate one
of the motives back Of the present
advance. For the first six months of
1929 Inland Steel had surplus of
$l,291,S21 after dividends on both
classes of stock. The common pays
at the rate of $3.50 4 year.
Foreign Exchange Weak.
The distinctive incidents in the
new high for cotton, rather decided
weakness again in the foreign eX-
changes mad a more even balance he
tween buying and selling in the stock
market.
There was nothing fresh in the
cotton situation. 1t is simply a case
where all the statistics bearing upon
available supplies. point more and
more to genuine shortage. Foreign
buyers and domestic mill owners alike
have become thoroughly intimidated
and are endeavoring to build up their
depleted stocks uder the most dis
advantageous conditions.
Sterling was off . cents in the
pound. and francs were down more
than half the distance between their
low for all time-5.20 cents-in the
second week of November, and the
high of the subsequent recovery fol-
lowing the Anglo French agreement
at the ambassadors conference.
International Cement Active.
International Cement was more ac.
lively bought in anticipation of sat
iSfaCtOry business in 1924 and be-
cause as a S4 dividend payer the
stock was selling out of line. Divi-
dcndS on the common We're raised
recently from So to 81 annually.
There are 364.l67 shares of COM
mon and the outstanding z per cent
preferred stock. exclusive of small
treasury holdings, amounts to $780,
700. International Cement in the
first nine months earned almost the
full 4 per cent on the common.
The street had in mind the meeting
of Mack Trucks directors scheduled
for December J. when action will be
taken on the dividend. In the fall
Mack increased the annual rate
from 81 to St, and now there is talk
of an extra. Conservative persons
doubt that it will be the company s
policy to pay out anything additional
until 1924. Earnings will be in ex-
cess of $40 share for 1923 and the
demand for MaCk's product appears
to hold up well.
Pan-American Petroleum stocks fell
back no further relatively than any of
the other oil shares. and ii was quite
evident that the Offering of 12.000,-
900 new first mortgage tWelve-year
convertible 6l2 per cent sinking fund
bonds had been anticipated. It re-
qures about $50. 100000 to pay the $S
dividends, and in view of the recent
conditions in the oil trade some have
wondered where the company would
get the money to maintain these divi-
dendS. .Pan-American's earnings for
she first six months amounted to S5.57
b. share, as against around S13 for the
1irst seven months of 1922.
S1rOmberg Big Surprise.
The extra dividend of s1.50 on
Stromberg Carburetor, accompanied
by an increase in the regular rate
from a 81 to an SS basis, took the
street by surprise. Stromberg stock
was bid up some 4 points within a
few minutes on the action and a
statement for the nine months show
ing Il balance available for distribu-
tion of $10.S0 a share.