Evening star., 1923-06-04
MARKETS MOVES
!: MOST PUzzL|NG
Price Changes Wholly in
| Hands of Professionals.
: Closing Irregular.
BY STUART p. WEST.
srecial Dispatch to The Star

Erecial Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, June 4.--Confiicting
currents ran through the stock mar
ket today, falling in with the prevail
ing view that Wall street was in for
a period of indecisive and compara-
lively narrow fluctuations.
Rumors were very insistent that
large interests in the oil trade had
not yet turned on the situation and
might bring about at any moment
another cut in crude oil. During the
greater part of the time special
heaviness was apparent in Standard
California, Phillips Petroleum and
other members of the group.
The street regarded the offer OF
2S5,000 shares of new Marland Oll
stock as temporarily bearish because,
while it will bring in nearly $4,000
600 more cash to the company s
treasury. it will add largely TO the
supply of the stock which has to be
digested. This was, from trading
sideration than the maintenance of
the 81 dividend, which had never
really been in serious doubt.
Consolidated Gas Weak.
Consolidated Gas opened down
over a point on Gov. smiths sign
ing of the dollar gas bill The best
opinion. however. was that there
policy until the matter was finally
decided in the courts. Meanwhile,
with considerable delay in pros
pect before any court decision is
handed down, talk of a dividend in
crease, upon which recent opera
tions for the rise in Consolidated
Gas stock had been based, will have
TO be discarded.
y very sharp jump in Dawson
Chemical was ascribed to the sudden
running in of a short interest which
had not covered on last month s
break. This brought some sympa-
thetio buying for short account into
the other chemical and fertilizer
stocks. although there is no conPec-
tion whatever between the situation
in the latter and that in Dawson
Chemical.
Financial Review and Outlook.
Tcday's movement on the stock eX-
change hardly afforded much clue to
Intelligent judgment regarding the
financial outlook. Price changes were
wholly the work of professional trad
ers and meant nothing more than that
This class of operators were divided in
their view as to the immediate drift
of things and were working at cross
purposes.
Pessimistic expressions regard
ing the business situation were COM
mon, but they came from the volatile
trading element. which is in the habit
of shifting around very quickly once
it finds that the market is not going
its way. In substantial quarters the
weight Of opinion is that there is
nothing alarming about the recent
slow down.
1t has gone too far in certain lines
TO be considered a mere seasonal
fiuctuation. but in the general body
of industry the setback has not been
such as to suggest any serious de-
cline in company earnings.
Further proof of how far the coun-
try is away from any approach to
imitation is afforded by the latest
composite figures on commodity
prices. AS compiled by Prof. Fisher
of New Haven. the so-called index
or average-taking 100 as the normal
for 1913-has dropped to 160, as com
pared with the April high of 16S and
the January low of 156. 1t is shown
by this that fully two-thirds of the
entire price expansion during the
first quarter of the year has now dis
appeared.
Fair Rally in Afternoon.
The stock market came back rather
sharply for a time in the early after
noon with the speculative leaders up
a point to two points from their early
lows. This rally was partially checked
by heavy selling of the Mercantile
Marine shares, following the an
nouncement that the preferred divi-
dend was to be passed and that the
business conditions of the company
were worse even than they were a
year ago.
The decline in German marks was
halted at least temporarily, but
French francs and Italian Ira con-
tinued their decline. Francs. where
they sold this afternoon, were off a
whole half cent from their high of two
months ago. This decline is more
remarkable in the light of the latest
figures of the French foreign trade.
The market movement in the last
hour and a half was more than ever
confused. Still traders who had been
aggressively at work on the short
side early in the day found that
against the ma ajority of the list they
were making little headway.