Evening star., 1923-12-27
WALL STREET LIST
TURNS DOWNWARD
Heavy Profit Taking Checks
Advance-High Call Money
Helps Break.
BY STUART p. WEST.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, December 27.-Aftel
such a rapid advance as occurred
Wednesday, the market today raj
into very heavy profit taking. this
selling was more easily absorbed In
certain parts of the list than In
others.
United States Steel common was
again the center of interest. For ar
hour or so, large blocks of the stock
changed hands around the previous
high of 9S. Then, as the afternoon
began, the stock finally got through
that figure. and in doing so impart-
cd confidence to the rest of the steeI
group. Bethlehem Steel, Republic
Steel, Crucible and Sloss Sheffield, al
got above the best so far reached ir
the present upward swing.
Oil Prices Go Higher.
Expectations that the advance in
oil prices would become general were
realized this morning. when the pre-
vious days advance in the Pennsyl-
vania crude quotations was promptly
followed by similar advances in the
mid continent field and in the south
Oil shares We're actively bought fol
a time on these announcements, but
as the day went on it looked as
though the good news was being
taken advantage of to unload lo1
of stock bought lower down. The
point was made that the advance ir
crude prices would have the effect
of checking the decrease in produc-
tion and that. with this possibility
in view. the oil shares market might
be considered as having had a pretty
generous advance.
Without anything developing in the
copper trade, there was a better de-
especially Anaconda and American
Smelling and Refining.
The latter at one time was VI
nearly two points. lnasmuch a:
earnings of the smelling companie:
depend more upon volume of busines.
done than upon prices. the huge pro.
duction and consumption of copper ant
the recent improvement in the marke
for zinc and lead are important CON
&iderations in the case of American
Smelling.
Heavy Proflt-takinS.
Outside of the oil shares other
the profit taking wave. ConSpicuou.
among these were Tobacco Products
Cast Iron Pipe and Cuba Cane Sugar
preferred. The latter has encountered
very large just ABOVE
50. The demonstration in the Public
Utility issues was not renewed, eX.
cept in the case of American Water
Works common and 6 per- cent pre-
ferred, both of which had a further
sharp advance. The ability to pay
dividends on adj three classes of this
company's stocks has been estab-
lished in every monthly statement Of
earnings for the last year or more.
The only signicance attaching to the
days stock market was that many
operators for the rise, with attractive
paper profits accumulated, were eX.
pressing their opinion that the up.
ward movement had gone far enough
for the present. What is to happen
in the longer run is a different propo-
sition.
French Francs Recover.
1t was not possible to say whether
or not organized support was in the
market for French exchange, but. a
all events, with French finances al
object of daily increasing skepticisn
it was certain the right moment fol
sustaining efforts to be put forth. The
recovery in the franc was made to CO
incide with the optimistic statement
by the French finance minister, anG
quite likely the coincidence was in
territorial.
Selling increases at Close.
Realizing sales increased as the af-
ternoon went on and made more
general impression upon prices
There was, however, no weakness
only a natural enough check upon q
buying movement which had become
inn ~