Evening star., 1925-03-27
PRICES IRREGULAR
IN STOCK MARKET
Better Buying in Some Issues
in Afternoon-SeVere At
taCkS on Rails.
BY STUART T.. WEST.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, March 27,-The stock
market was extremely unsettled to-
day with the tendency very much
mixed. Further weakness IN Chlcaso
and Northwestern featured the rail
way section There seemed to be no
disposition on the part of large IN
terests to bid for stocks, but they
we're content to take them whenever
they were offered down. Meanwhile
public participation was at a low epp
and here and there further liquidation
was induced by the failure of stocks
to hold on rallies.
Heavy Selling in Rails.
The Chicago and Northwestern sit
uation has been discussed in these
.lisnatches a number of times. The
two main points were that the stock
around 20, paying 81 dividends, was
altogether too high as general market
values went, and, secondly, that re-
cent earnings reports held out not
.he slightest hope Of any increase m
the dividend On top of these facts
there came the February figures,
sho ing net operating income of
only s34l,090, as against s1,29S,S54
i'm the same month last year.
This report, appearing after the
close of business Thursday, produced
A lot of selling and there was no sup
port outside of such short interest as re-
manned from the last break. The
stock sold off nearly points before
It rallied at all. Other northwestern
rails were more or less upset by this
break, especially North Pacific. Great
Northern preferred did relatively
better.
Stocks in Weak Position.
Where weakness occurred in other
rails it was not so much due to the
disappointing traffic report for Febru-
airy. Rather. ii reflected a weak
speculative position.
Western Pacific was selling today
Is points below its high, illustrating
how far some people were misled by
the declaration of the dividends
Kansas City Southern was off nearly
10 points Here was an instance
where on account of the high valua-
tion fixed by the Interstate Commerce
Commission it does not do much for
earnings to increase because the
Government supposedly is entitled to
half any such gain. On the basis
of present earnings Kansas City
Southern could hardly afford to pay
dividend. The entire reason for its
advance three months ago was mer
borne out, although it logically should
be in the end.
Shipping Stocks Favored.
Shipping stocks were in demand
for while, particularly Atlantic, Gulf
and West Indies. The reduction of
30 points in refined sugar prices put
a stop to the rise in American Sugar,
although il did not discourage gos-
sip about the stock going back to a
dividend before long. United States
Steel common made a new low for
the year below III. Oil shares were
less active, but there was some spe
cial selling of Atlantic Refining.
Now that the Wabash dividend dec
laration has actually occurred, the
Street is talking about Texas and Pa
cific being the next railroad to enter
the ranks of the dividend payers. At
a recent meeting no action was taken
on this score. but Texas and Pacific
has shown signs of accumulation on
any recesSionS.
Market Opinion Today
The advice on the general market
sent out today by one of the large
Broadway commission firms was char
acteristic of the mood of the specu-
lative community. 1t said, in part:
Until stocks reach the point where
they can hold above previous low
points during these selling expedi-
tions, we would continue to maintain
Il sideline position from a trading
standpoint, awaiting evidence that
bear pressure is being met with
greater degree of resistance in pivotal
stocks"
In the latter group was included, of
course American Can, United States
Steel, General Electric and American
Locomotive.
Chicago and Eastern Weak.
Chicago and Eastern Illinois prefer
red sank to its lowest for the year.
The immediate cause of it's weakness
was not unlike that behind the SELL
ing in Chicago and Northwestern. A
poor February report was having an
unfavorable effect. Last month the
gross income of the Chicago and
Eastern Illinois was $1,SS7,772 as COM
pared with s2,400,1S3 in February,
1924. and net income fell from $751;
206 a year ago to s2,S91.