Evening star., 1923-01-25
foreign SITUATION
|SAGA|N IGNORED
Stocks Move Within Marrow
Limits-Less Attention
Paid to Rails.
BY STUART p. WEST.


Special Dispatch to The Star.
; NEW YORK, January 24.-lhe
,stock market today continued 10
show that the crisis abroad was
bringing out no real offerings. Trad
ing was dull and fluctuations small
eThere was some short covering-tn in the
Sfirst hour or two by traders who had
Figured on a break Wednesday when
Hthe oil shares were going down and
who were confessing that their cal
~ culations had been wrong. After
these covering purchases were over
prices fell back again.
There were few speciality moves OF
Interest. Sears Roebuck responded
to the publication of the annual re-
Sport. which showed earnings of near
Aiy IS share, whereas the year De-
kfore there had been a deficit of over
SIS. 100000. Montgomery Ward was
taken up following the rise in Sears
Roebuck.
: Rail shares Less Active.
The Coca Cola report showing a net
lof $12.S9 share was almost
eprecisely what well informed fore
casts had led the street TO expect
Consequently the stock did little one
way or the other. The statement oy
the president that January sales Sc
.far were running 100000 ahead oi
the corresponding month year ago.
made a favorable impression.
& Announcement that the New YORK
public service commission Is soon &c
order Il to s per cent cut In New
York telephone rates and per cent
reduction up state brought little
SELLING into American Telephone and
'Teiegraph
= Some OF the oil shares, like Standard
of California and Standard of New
Jersey, went slightly lower at the
start, but later the whole group hard
sened Railway shares were not as
prominent, although most of them
held their recent gains.
Southern Hallway Strong.
The December earnings report OF
the Southern Railway Company will
be published next week. Southern
railway began to show profit after
the first six months of 1922. but II
was in the last three months thai
most of the net income applicable tC
the common stock was realized. De-
cenber's business. it is said, Will show
very marked Improvement. The early
estimates of $3.50 a share for the
common stock probably will be eN'
sceeded by substantial margin. Janu
ary revenue is proving much better
tJnan had been expected.
Youngstown Sheet and Tube stock
was admitted to trading today or
the New York Stock Exchange
Youngstown has just absorbed the
Brier Hill Steel and Tube Company
and will be one of the largest con-
Germs in the industry. Youngstown
AS paid dividends on its common
3 ock without interruption for seven
teen years, varying from 50 to s2(
IN cash. together with numerou:
sock dividends.
Review and Outlook.
Once more today the testimony oi
the market as to the feeling in bank
ing circles regarding the Ruhr sit
uation was mainly negative. In 9th.
er words, the disposition was for eX.
change rates and security prices t.
steady down around existing level!
rejecting no serious apprehension OF
D. the one hand, yet on the other dis
playing enough uncertainty to caus'
suspension of active operations fol
the time being.
There was only one exception, anC
this was a rather striking one, name
ly, drop in French government Y
ger cent bonds, dealt in in New YorI
below 80 for the first time in theil
exaggerate the significance Of this in
,cident. Yet price of S99s for a gov.
Crnment security paying 7a per cen
interest is a pretty low estimate Of
.-esents at least tentative judgement
Nf the financing community that the
French venture across the Rhine !!
not going to yield the results which
predicting.
: Waiting Attitude Prevails.
The stock markets were assuming
.zluch the same waiting attitude a.
s-Ha other markets. Yet both in Lon
4:on and New York they were dis
Ft,nctly strong. and where price;
5l..oved at all they moved for the mos
, art upward. There had been ;
rather widely advertised drive on th'
previous day against the oil shares
(which was in the nature of pro
fessional experiment to test out th'
II lrket as whole. The result was u
s.,nvince the experts that the ''Eu
Topean crisis" as an argument for th'
liuu :da tion of stocks held in tht
country would not do, because tn
nome trade situation was too strong
7 Consequently today's operation!
were given over pretty largely TO I'M
retreat of those who had been selling
the market short on the previous day
Along with this sort of buying wen
some fresh operation in industria
stocks of the so-called speciality type
ig Foreign Exchanges Quiet.
9The foreign exchanges were prac
tfcally stationary. The further de
crease IN fTeHCn DdHh uOIc ClTSuld
fion reported for the week was o
interest, but, taking the results O.
4he last fortnight. the reduction IL
taa outstanding paper money amount
TO, 500 100000 francs, whereas in th'
,Grst week of January alone there hat
been a jump of billion francs.
The inference from this is that
while a good part of the year ent
fnfla tion was due to temporary causes
1t Is not SO certain that all of it was
Best Prices Late in Day.
As rule. the best prices of tn,
day on the stock exchange wer,
reached in the last hour and trading
WIS more active then than at an.
1tevious stage. Sugar stocks wer,
xRcn up in the final dealings an,
Central Leather preferred was bough
as the result of the attention callet
to- the favorable outlook in the leathe
Industry.