Evening star., 1924-11-02
F|RMNESS NOTED
IN BOND MARKET
Issues of Real Merit Being
Held and Sold Only for
Higher Prices.
MONEY REMAINS EASY
500, 600, 900 Paid on German Loan
Without Ripple-New Of
ferings Coming.
MONEY REMAINS EASY
BY GEORGE r. HUGHES.
q tch to The Star

BY GEORGE r. HUGHES.
| Special Dispa tch to The Star
NEW YORK, November 1.-Trading
| in investment securities has been
| very quiet this week, but the market
has been significantly firm. The COM
paratively small amount of business
| has been due more to lack of offer
ings than anything else.
At no time during the week has
there been any pressure to sell any
thing of real investment merit. Here
and there weakness has cropped out
among certain industrials, but there
were always particular reasons to ac-
count for il and these isolated insti-
| tutionS which always set high
standard for their holdings have been
| unable to fill their requirements
| without bidding up prices.
Bond Values Firm.
1t is true that the average quota
tion for typical bonds, both domestic
and foreign, is not quite as high as
in July and August, but it is not
much down. Such gilt-edge invest-
ments as the Treasury AIS and
United States Steel sinking fund 5s
have equaled their high records for
the year, while for the general run of
the list it was easier to sell than to
buy. All this strength still repre-
sents the phenomenal abundance of
capital which seems in no way i'm
paired by the food of new financing.
Nor have business requirements come
into competition with the investment
market as means for employment of
idle funds.
The weekly statement of the Fed
eral Reserve Banks shows a decrease
in discounted bills, while there was
an increase in bills bought in the
open market. The rate for call
| money, which had gone as high as >
per cent early in the week. by the
end had settled back to the minimum
OF the Summer. There was CORE
spending easing in the time mones
market.
100000. 600 Cash Payment.
Perhaps the most convincing testi
| mony to the prevailing ease in nones
was the way in which the markc,
took the payment of $l00,000,000 casl
for the new German loan. The opera
tion was completed without causing
ripple on the surface. AS to the
| future ii is hard TO see how money
rates can go any lower. 1t is more
reasonable to expect that they will
go higher, but of this so far there is
not the slightest sign. Gold imports
are slackening, but the tide has not
yet turned in the other direction. Mo-
much can be predicted as to bust
ness until the country has demon
strated its reaction to the result Of
the election.
1t is interesting to note that this
great show of strength in the purely
investment market has gone along
with an upward movement in specu-
latlve securities. The two move
mentS, however, have no common
origin. While easy money has been
the underlying cause of the firmness
in investment bonds, the speculative
| enthusiasm for stocks has been based
on expectation, at least so it seems,
of a brighter business prospect.
Whether this prospect will be real
lied or not only the future can tell
Interest in French Loan.
Meanwhile, the investment bankers
| are concerning themselves about the
| number and quality of the new is
sues they expect to be ask ed to sell.
| Perhaps the one offering about which
| there is the most discussion and the
! least information is the French loan.
| In some quarters the great success
| of the German issue is taken to augur
/ we'll for a French offering. In some
! respects, however, the situation is
| quite different. Every one knows the
! difficulties which have confronted the
/ French minister of finance in balanc-
! ing the French budget with its enor-
| nous load of interest on the national
| debt. No one doubts French in
| tegrity with its long and honorable
record of faithfully meeting all obli-
| cations. but no one can quite fore
| see the end of French borrowing
| Under the circumstances it is felt
| that investors will demand at least
| a ~ per cent return on a French
security. Listed French bonds have
| been adjusting their prices to this
| expectation on the exchange.
Other Loans Coming.
! But France will not be the only
| applicant for accommodation from
among foreign countries And indus
| trial organizations as we'll as govern
| ments are sure to enter our market
| when they need new money. There
| is a danger here of a letting down
| OF standards, now that 1T is so easy
! to place a new Offering even when
| that Offering is for foreign account
| The old theory that American in
vestors would not buy a foreign So
| curity has had hard going this year
| A compilation of foreign bond offer
| ings for the calendar year 1924 to
| date shows that there have been
| marketed in the United States almost
| $706, 100000 in foreign government
| loans and ss7,o0o,ooo of foreign cor
poratlOn issues. III TO THESE is added
some $55,o00.000 in Canadian Rail
ways obligations the combined total
| of foreign issues for the year works
! out to more than $S5S,000 900.
/ In domestic issues the railway
and the utilities are in far greater
| favor than industrials. With the
! former this week it has not been so
much a matter of merger talk as
| consideration of earnings. Perhaps
| also the receding possibility of ad-
verse legislation has also helped
| railway securities. Buying of util-
| tiles has been fairly consistent
| throughout the year In the first
! nine months the average apprecia-
| tion in value of utility bonds has
been greater than in any other group
| The railways come next, then the for
| eign governments and last the in
dustrials.