Evening star., 1923-07-19
ADVANCE SHARPEST.
IN MANY WEEKS.
Good Buying Forces Shorts to
Cover and Prices lump
Very Rapidly.
BY STUART +. WEST.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, July 19.-The way the
present stock exchange movement is
being sized up by competent judges,
it is a market which really turned
more than n week ago and has been
moving slowly but steadily ahead in
L manner designed nos to encourage
TOO much outside interest at this price
level.
While the rank and file are asking
themselves whether the change Tor
the better has come, the fact is that
most of the speculative leaders are
I'D anywhere from ) to 10 points from
their lows. Today the advance came.
as it were. more into the open.
Trading was more active and the
gains more pronounced.
Pools More Active.
What was particularly noticeable
was the revival of activities in stocks
of the pool variety. The significance
of this was that pool managers
thought market conditions had i'm
proved sufficiently to warrant a re-
newal of operations. Prominent
among such stocks were the depart
rnent and chain store issues. Amer
lean Ice, Coca Cola. Household Prod
ucts. Reynolds Tobacco B, Industrial
Alcohol and Mack Trucks.
Such stocks as Woolw orth. kresge
and May Department Stores have sold
ut prices out of all proportion to their
ordinary dividend distribution. AS
sociated Dry Goods is evidently fol-
lowing in the footsteps of these
stocks They are. as group,
conspicuous illustration of how earn
ing power and accumulated treasury
assets are far more important factors
than current dividend rates in deter
mining market valuations.
Leaders Become Active.
Atlantic Gulf and West Indies pre-
ferred was selling today at more than
double the figure il was several
weeks ago. Its decline to an eX-
treme low of Ga was one of the
striking inStances,of the unwarranted
extent to which the recent downward
movement was carried. American
Can was actively bought rs it crossed
90. and SO was Studebaker as it
got above 104. Short sellers irving
to cover Corn Products found that
available supply around prevailing levels
had become pretty small
Copper stocks responded to fur
ther sharp advance in the metal in
the leaders The Republic Iron and
Steel statement came up to eXpec-
tations so far as the earning results
were concerned. but the street did
not relish the heavy drop in orders
on hand-from 100000 on March 81
to $4,000 on June 80. This did not
prevent the steels as group taking
part in the general advance.
Public utilities again attracted
much attention. These stocks are
being bought partly as permanent
and partly as speculative investments
because of the steadiness of their
earning power, the good sized margin
over dividend requirements and the
attractive returns at present prices.
Shorts Rush to Cover.
urgent as the day went on. The
short interest was virtually STAN
peded in Corn Products A block of
2,400 shares was taken at 122. after
above 1@9. At so Industrial Alcohol
was up 10 points from the low of last
month. nearly all this rise having oc-
cured since the announcement of a
price of alcohol. Large stop orders
on the short side were reached in
Baldwin Locomotive as it went
through 12l. and in Studebaker at and
just above 105. The shorts in Steel
common were run in on the rise
oil shares. for example. were well
behind in the general recovery, be-
cause it is felt that the oil trade has
not yet made the necessary readjust-
ment.
Among the rails the line was drawn
between the stocks of companies
which could stand a freight rate de-
crease without having to cut divi-
dends and those which could not. The
best prices were reached in the final
hour.
Best Market in Weeks.
Today the stock market had the
best advance il has enjoyed in the last
six weeks. with wheat going down
again, cotton inclined to sag. the ex-
changes irregular and sugar prices
shaded again. The German mark
made a new low for all time. 1t took
at the extreme 517. 900 marks to cover
the dollar-a tragic comparison with
the normal pre-war rate of a little
over four to the dollar. Both francs
and sterling went higher. but the
rise was scarcely sufficient to indicate
any lessening of the doubt overhang-
ing the European situation.
MARKET CLOSES STRONG.