Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1924-09-08
Conjecture Over
Advance in. Rate
Call Money Past Week

New York. Sept. (By A. P.)-
With the call money rate on the
New York stock exchange advancing
to FER Gent after having held at +
, per cent since early in July, interest
in financial and business quarters
cecteIed last week in the money
| market.
1t was the general opinion that the
higher change was due more imme-
! diately to first of the mouth de-
, mands, which were rather heavy.
However. the firmer tendency re-
Gently displayed by bankers accept
| ances and time money also were
T, noted and there was a considerable
body of opinion which held that
other than transitory influences were
at work.
Come observers pointed out, for
example. that gold imports slacken-
! ed. and suggested that a reparations
settlement might reverse the flow Of
| the yellow metal Others made the
| point that dmoeStic industry having
! touched low point in uly was now
| recovering. An increase of activity
Of this kind taken with the usual
pickup in the business that comes
! in the autumn should according to
! these financiers, cause large demands
! for credit.
While a hardening in rates at this
time was not considered surprising
there was little disposition to expect
any sudden or large change in the
character of the money market. It
was felt that the federal reserve sys-
tenn would stand in the way Of avn
sharp upturns in rates. The reserve
! banks discounts are still, indeed,
while their lending power is tremen-
dous. The board is on record as fav-
! oring cheap money When trade and
industry are recovering from depres-
sion and the open market purchases
OF short-term paper that the reserve
banks have'made during the past few
months show that the authorities at
| the several institutions are not un-
sympathetic with the boards policy.
| Car loading statistics indicated
that the usual fall acceleration in ac-
tivity was developing. Loadings for
! the week ended August % were the
largest of the year and amounted to
/ 9S2.999 cars. Heavy gain shipments
again were feature. While the
freight movement is showing the nor
NAL seasonal gain it is still running
about s per cent below the record
performances of last year.
: Reports on pig iron production
| during August revealed a six per
cent increase as compared with July.
Meanwhile advices from the steel
making centers indicated that steel
production for the country as a whole
was above so per cent of capacity
and perhaps close to 55 per cent.
! The pig iron market was fairly firm
but that for steel products failed to
. exhibit convincing tendency to sta
billZe. Productive capacity is large,
! business is relatively small aha COM
petition is active. Although the cor
ner seems to have been turned as far
as production is concerned it is still
a buyers market in steel.
! The chief commodity markets
marked time with prices rather ir-
regular Both cotton and wheat ira =
ders were awaiting government crop
reports. The cotton forecast will be
published today while that on wheat
VIII be given out tomorrow. Expec-
tatlons with regard to the estimated
! cotton Weld are somewhat mixed
Prices have declined about one cent
per pound since the government re-
| port of two weeks ago raised the es-
timated to 1o,956.0OO bales. No great
change from this figure is antici-
pated.
Meanwhile there are signs that
Europeans have been buying Ameri-
can grain and cotton Smaller for
eign wheat crops have stimulated
purchases of our own grain while
cotton has been helped by the better
European political outlook. 1t is to
these purchases rather than to any
misgivines as to the progress of the
reparations negotiations. that local
bankers attribute the reactions in
, foreign exchange rates that occurred
during the past week AS a matter
OF tact. most bankers think that the
/ feparat1ons matter is developing fav-
, orablN and that things will he in
! proper shape for German loan som q
time in October.