Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-12-28
STOCKS GIVE WAY
IN LATE DEALINGS
Steel and General Motors
Slough 0ff-RaiIs Suffer
in Liquidation.
BY GEORGE r. HUGHES.


NEW YORK, December 28.-After
day OF irregular and uncertain price
movements, with alternating periods
Of weakness and strength. the selling
got the upper hand in the last hour
and stocks came down fairly uni.
formly. The low prices of the session
were made toward the close.
United States Steel, which was
heavy all day. was down 2 points. and
General Motors, which had been rela.
lively firm. lost almost as much. The
railroads suffered in the late liquida.
ton along with the industrials-
Chesapeake & Ohio. Baltimore & Ohio
and New York Central. Even the
high priced Midland Steel Products
preferred, which was the sensation of
the day, lost part of its gain.
Naturally the greatest interest at
tached to the action Of United States
Steel, because of the announcement
after the close Tuesday of the cleo.
ton of ]. p. Morgan as chairman of
the board. Steel stock opened frac.
tionally up, but quickly sold off, abb
dicatlng its leadership to other fav-
orites The feeling seemed to be that
all the news was out" with regard to
Steel. for the time being at least, and
there was nothing more to stimulate
speculation. Moreover. 1t was begin
ming to be realized that the talk of ad.
ditional stock dividends, split-ups and
other melons" was likely to remain
talk and nothing more.
Market Has Sensations.
The market did have its sensations,
however. All the local utilities were
bought at rapidly advancing prices.
all Of them at new highs for a decade
or more. Brooklyn Edison at 219
was up over points, Brooklyn Union
Gas at 1856 had gained over points.
while Consolidated Gas was showing
a rise Of 2 points. AS usual, reports
OF consolidation in some form or other
were widespread.
Midland Steel Products preferred
performed spectacularly. Seldom even
in this market of wild fluctuations has
there been anything comparable. The
stock had closed at 27A. which repre-
sented rise Of 22A points from Sat.
urday's close. advancing by leaps
and bounds 1t crossed 800 and then
went Is points farther until 1t was
showing net gain of nearly AZ points
on the day. The market was so ex.
cited that variations Of as wuch as
4 points between sales were noted. No
explanation that concerned itself sole
ly with trade conditions was at all
adequate for this phenomenon.
Irregularity Elsewhere.
Elsewhere in the market there was
irregularity. General Motors sold off
in the early trading and then more
than regained the loss. General Elec.
trio was very strong. Christie Brown
was another speciality to sell at a new
1927 top. Railroad shares felt the i'm
fiuence OF the depressing November
earnings statements and yet they
were not weak. In fact, in the after
noon some OF them showed advances.
New York Central was well bought
and Baltimore & Ohio sold of only
fractionally despite its heavy loss In
gross and net.
One direct response to the news was
the buying of Pan-American Petro.
leum "B." Action Of the Mexican
Chamber of Deputies on the oil and
land bill was interpreted as the begin.
ming of better things for American
oil companies with interests In Next
CO. The stock gained between and 3
points.
Except for the New York City Elec.
trio Light & Gas stocks. the market
turned somewhat reactionary in the
afternoon. Trading was in smaller
volume. Steel yielded, but General
Motors held generally fairly well. The
sugar stocks did better. especially
Sugar and South
Porto Rico. White Motor was fea.
ture on the side Of advance.