Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-16
ADVANCE IN STOCK.
PRICES BRINGS OUT
INCREASED SELLING
BuIIiSh and Bearish Symp-
toms Shown During Week.
Trend Upward.
RECOVERY is CONTRAST
TO RECENT SHARP DROP
Easier Money Assists Business in
otfsetting Effects of
Market Slump.
BY CHARLES F. sPEARE.


NEW YORK, February 15.-There
have been strongly bullish as well as
conspiculously bearish symptoms in
this weeks stock market. The former
have surmounted the effect of the latter
on general price average. However,
with junior securities now so much
above the level of last December, in
creasing resistance to the advance is
shown.
There are signs that Wall Street has
overplayed the element of industrial
recovery and improving business senti-
ment in its relation to stocks.
Compared with three months ago,
the situation Is excellent. No one could
have believed on November Is that by
the middle of February there would
have been so much of lost market
valuees regained in so short time or
that the country would have passed
through the severest speculative crisis
in its history with so little visible
wreckage to business concerns.
Bulk Of Liquidation Finished.
The fact that both industrial and
rail stock averages have, within a few
days, risen above those reached in the
first uprush of prices following the
panic is proof that the bulk of the
liquidation necessary to a clearing I'D
of the market has been completed. It
does not mean, however, that all of the
weak accounts have been eliminated or
thaet all corporations have been i'm
mune to the decline in purchasing
power due to the great shrinkage in
security values, or to the effects of
oyerproduction during several years of
national prosperity.
Many shares have regained from 20
to 40 per cent of their gross loss in
1929. This makes them much more
acceptable in collateral loans than they
were a short time ago. Stocks that
have risen from IS to so points look
like they had returned to complete re-
covery until study OF the price list re-
veals the fact that they are still go to
100 points lower than In August and
In September. Many Of them have
long way to go before investment trusts
and trading corporations as well as in
dividuals can write them I'D to the
cost prices in their portfolios. While
day after day from 100 to nearly 200
separate issues have been making neW
high prices for this year, no outstand-
ing highs" for all time are being re-
corded.
some Distressed InduStriaIS.
In contrast to this favorable trend
in prices is that of an increasing group
Of somewhat distressed industrials,
whose action this week has been con-
Trajectory to statements that business
rapidly Is approaching normal.
Business Upswing Expected.
Undoubtedly the improvement in
market prices has been a big element
in creating the more cheerful attitude
toward business in the second half of
this year, as few look for decided up
swing until late in the Spring. If the
break in stocks last November was re-
sponsible for producing the slump IN
industry, 1t is logical that a market
rally OF the present proportions should
have pronounced influence on pro-
ducers and consumers alike.
In spite Of this unfavorable showing
by the carriers, their stocks have been
notably strong this week from the bene-
Mt OF easy money, and with the posi-
bIity Of impending mergers overhaul
ancing current unsatisfactory revenues.
Easier money will effect part of the
cure, sought by both business and the
for securities, and the more
quickly as these are complementary to
each other. An investor who has idle
funds may not like the look of railroad or
industrial conditions as they are rep
resented in current earnings, but he
will not be satisfied to receive a small
return on his money when he can use
1t in the market for high-grade securi-
ties to much better advantage.
Obviously, large sums that were en-
ployed for nearly year Ind half in
the call money market are now flowing
steadily into investment channels.
When fhiS lie roNN0I1izal oil urikI,
shares of American corporations were
bought outright and put away" be-
tween the middle of October and the
middle of December, thereby reducing
floating supplies to the smallest totals
in years, it Is not surprising that stocks
go up, as they have at times this week,
when the statistical evidence seems to
presume that they should go down.