Evening star., 1925-02-27
MONEY RATESLEAD
MARKET INTEREST
Price Changes in Wall Street
Very ErratiC-Motor
Shares Do Better.
BY STUART u. WEST.

Special Dispatch to The star
NEW YORK, February 27.--The
chief point of interest in the stock
market from the outset today was
how Wall Street would respond to
the announcement made after the
close Thursday of the increase in the
New York Federal Reserve Bank re-
discount rate to 312 per cent.
After selling off in the early trad
Ing the entire list met rather eff
fective support and turned strong
again. Operations for the rise went
on in numerous directions, the sugars,
one or two of the oils, and motors,
some of the rails and Il large num-
Der of specialtieS taking the lead
The volume of business was still on
a reduced scale and trading was not
especially active.
Stocks Very Erratic.
Fluctuations among the higher
priced industrials were very erratic.
Baldwin Locomotive, which had
closed the previous day at 1431a, sold
below ZAP soon after the opening,
quickly rallied TO 144 then fell back
again. American Can did about The
same thing. and so did similar
issues. United States Steel common,
OK the quarterly dividends, amount
ing to q per cent, sold most of the
time around the equivalent of Thurs
days final.
Jordan Motor made a new high.
above 55, and the low-priced Gard
ner Motor was unusually active at
advancing prices. Denial of recent
gossip that Packard Motor was con-
cerned in a combination deal brought
good deal of profittaking into the
stock, but not enough to have de-
pressing effect. The advance in
Moon appeared to have been checked
The interesting point about the
movement in the motor group was
that it did not involve the regulation
leaders, like Studebaker and General
Motors
AtchfsOn at Top Price.
Atchison ran up to 125, that is sub
stantially its top price, following the
publication of the January earnings
statement. which showed a gross in
crease of $1,000, 600, and a net increase
of $1,500,000 ocer the month a year
ago. This was a remarkably good
statement in comparison with most of
the others. st. Louis, San Francisco
also made favorable showing in
last months earnings and this was
reflected in fresh buying orders COM
ing into the market for the stock
Western Pacific issues were strong
again, the buying this time fayoring
the common stock which ran up above
SS. St. Paul preferred appeared to be
meeting a large supply of stock
around 23.
Public Utilities Strong.
Public utility issues were strong,
with Columbia Gas at a new high
above 50, and with Brooklyn Union
Gas running up very sharply. There
was more of demand for Standard
Gas which in its last statement showed
the So dividend earned more than twice
over. Consolidated Gas of New York,
was also bought, but it appeared to be
moving more in sympathy with
Brooklyn Union than of its own ac-
cord.
The foreign exchanges had had
time to discount the news in their
final trading of Thursday afternoon.
Sterling had gone down to a new low
for the year, under S4.75. This was
accompanied by discussion of a posi-
BILE increase next week in the English
bank rate.
Sterling Exchange Rallies
Nevertheless, sterling today rallied
nearly cents. The French franc
touched a new low for the season,
under 500, which meant the lowest
since the last Summer, but it, too,
recovered later in the day. So did
Italian lire. There were evidences of
powerful support in the lire as it
approached the cent level.
What Wall Street saw in the Fed
eral Reserve action was primarily an
adjustment to the higher tendency
which has been observable in out
side money rates. In addition to this
there was the fact that rediscounts
at the New York bank had almost
quadrupled since the first of the year.
Partly this was borrowing from other
cities, but more largely it was the
effect of the Stock Exchange spec
ulation.