Evening star., 1924-01-03
EXTENSIVE SELLING
IN MANY STOCKS
Declines Due to Short Sell
ing and Taking of Paper
Profits.
EXCHANGE is IMPROVING.
Southern Railway Prominent on
Buying Side.
EXCHANGE is IMPROVING.
by STUART T.. WEST.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, January 3.-Such de-
cline as occurred in today's stock
market was the reaction after the
wave of optimism with which the
new year was ushered in. There was
further selling by persons who. for
tax reasons. had waited until 1924 to
take their profits. Also. there was
some sentiment in trading circles
that the market had gone up prac-
tically continuously through Decem-
Der and, on technical grounds, was
due for moderate setback. These in
fiuences counted more than anything
else in the business of the day.
Southern Railway Strong. :
The losses, however. were for the
most part unimportant and were
fairly we'll balanced by gains in spe-
cial issues. Southern Railway stood
out conspicuously on the buying side
especially in view of the uncertain
action of other rails. The street feels
sure that if Congress does nothing to
hurt the carriers Southern Railway
common will go on a. dividend basis
some time this year. more likely in
the spring. The road is expected to
show between 9, and 10 per cen, cent
ing today at the highest prices since
1906
At the periods during which the
main inclination was downward 1t
was noticeable that Baldwin Loco
motive and other equipment shares
were under rather more pressure than
the rest. Baldwin came down in less
than an hour from Wednesdays close
of 124s, TO 1913. The street was pay
ing more attention to the effect that
the reduced program of railway ex-
penditure for equipment this year
will have upon the earnings OF these
companies.
Pool in Fruit Active.
Atlantic Gulf and West Indies ap-
peared to have got over"the selling
of the previous day. The pool in
Cuyaemel Fruit resumed operations,
and there was quite a demand for
time for Montgomery Ward and
Sears Roebuck. Montgomery Ward
owes about s4.0oo.o00 for accumulated
dividends on the a. stock, and the
d. impression is that something will be
done before long toward clearing up
this obligation.
Oil stocks once more behaved in
a manner to indicate that they had
discounted for the present the good
news about. the. Oil trade. They
paid no attention to this morning s
announcement that gasoline prices
had been advanced cent a gallon
in the weekly. figures of crude pro-
duction.
Philadelphia Company commons
tendency to lag by comparison with
other public utility issues, has been
connected by some with the COM
pany's earnings position. Net in
come was less, for instance, in Octo-
Der than in October 1922. But In
November there was substantial
Improvement and it is expected that
~ f0r har Sr-f1 hn
better. Philadelphia Company for
1923. according to latest estimates.
earned approximately $40 per share,
or 20 per cent, on the $50 par COM
mon.
Tire Stocks More Active.
What interest has been shown in
the rubber and tire shares has been
based upon the assumption that the
situation in this industry has been
relieved of it's depressing influence
and that the most likely development
is an increase in tire prices. On the
other hand, poor 1923 reports from
most companies are looked for: If
the demand by automobile manufac-
turers keeps up through the second
quarter 1t will be distinctly helpful
to the tiremakers.
Again today the important devel-
opments were in the foreign exchange
rather than in the security markets.
Rates rallied later in the day, but not
until sterling had sold at s4.261s and
francs 4.2S cents.
Sterling at it's low figure was off 9
cents in the pound within the week-
q sufficiently startling decline even in
these times. when the financial COM
munity is accustomed to violent nuc
tuations in the exchanges. 1t was
selling below anything touched last
year and was back over all the
ground gained since the, late winter
of 1922. The current quotation on
francs compared with 7.40 cents a
year ago. 1t represented a shrinkage
of "a per cent in the value of the
French currency unit since the entry
into the Ruhr.
Southern Helps Other Rails.
The remarkable rise in Southern
Railway at length made it's effect felt
in other rails. The Seaboard Air Lines
were drawn along, and SO were other
low-priced issues, like Texas and Pa
cific, New Haven and Wabash A.
Northern Pacific and Chicago and
North Western rallied after having
been depressed at the start.
Central Leather preferred had a
very sharp jump in the last hour
across 40. Steels and equipments
continued heavy, while the rail lead
ers and the public utilities were|a at
their best.
CLOSE IS IRREGULAR.