Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-11-06
mine STOCKS LEAD
IN MARKET UPTURN
Prices Retrace Ground Lost
in Sharp Profit Taking
at Opening.
BY GEORGE T. HUGHES.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

Special DlSpatCn TO me star.
NEW YORK, November g. Influ-
enced more by commodity fluctuations
than anything else in the outside news,
stocks today pursued a devious course.
They opened irregularly lower. were I'M
der moderate pressure for an hour or
so, and then came back under the
leadership Of the mining shares.
Silver supplanted wheat today as a
stimulant to buying in the stock mar
ket. The early reaction in grain, which
was to have been expected in view of
the extraordinary recAht rise brought
selling IN stocks at the start and the
market for a time presented a ragged
appearance. Then Wall Street woke
up to the fact that there was vast sig
nif1cance to be attached to the con-
tinuing advance in silver. Trading in
that metal during the first hour today
resulted in price gains of IS to go
points.
Sugar Stocks Improve.
Sugar stocks we're a little better
under the leadership of South Porto
Rico. RubberS were supported ~on eX-
pectation that the weekly figure would
show q large decrease in stocks of
crude.
The early reaction was most pro-
nounced in induStrials of the grade of
u. S. Steel, American Can, Allied Chem
ical and j. /. Case, in a few utilities,
among which Consolidated Gas was
conspicuous. and in the rails. where
N. Y. Central proved especially Sensi-
tive to selling. Nearly all these stocks
recovered at least a part of the loss.
Traders at once transferred their at
tention to the silver stocks, meaning for
the most part copper issues representing
companies that produce silver as an
important by-product. Cerro de Pasco
is the chief Of these and it was out
group actively bought included Kenne-
colt and American Smelling g. Re
filming.
International Silver was strong be-
cause of the large silver inventory it is
understood to carry. Aside from that,
however, International Silver, with its
almost impregnable financial position
has been selling at an attractive price
regardless Of current earnings, which
are said to be improving. The first
nine months OF the year resulted in an
operating deficit. One house today
estimated nevertheless that, allowing
for the preferred stock at par, net quick
assets OF International Silver were
equivalent to $50 a share on the COM
mon.
The case of International Silver is
important because there are so many
other industrial organizations the mar
ket price of whose stocks makes little
allowance for asset value, even when
those assets are practically current.
Opening Is Lower.
The market opened lower in quiet
trading
Stocks suffered from neglect, owing to
the heavy speculative interest in bonds
and commodities, notably wheat and
silver. The declines were small and
did not represent any great amount of
pressure.
United States Steel at 6734 was off
z and this about represented the tone
of the market. Active industrialS such
as Allied Chemical, American Can, Coca
Cola, Radio, General Electric. West
inghouse, International Harvester and
Sears Roebuck had comparable losses.
The mine shares, owing to the heavy
activity in metal markets, were Arm.
American Smelling e. Refining vas
higher at 281s. International Nickel
and Anaconda were unchanged.
Railroad shares were heavy. New
York Central was freely offered with
few bidders, and the price dropped
point to around 40. Small losses &C.
Cured in Canadian Pacific, Pennsyl-
vania and Southern Pacific. The oils
also lost fractionally. notably Standard
Oil Of California and Standard Oil of
New Jersey. In the utilities American
Telephone and Consolidated Gas lost
narrowly. Motor shares were little
changed.