Evening star., 1931-12-27
CURB MARKET PRICES DROP
So PER CENT DURING 1881
Closing Days of December Find Averages at Less
Than Half of Years Peak and Under
Close of 1880.

Issue Of one subsidiary, United Gas, and
the senior issues of four subsidiaries, as
well as the preferred and common stock
of the subsidiary of one of its sub
sidiaries.
Thus around Electric Power g. Light
are grouped United Gas and its subsid-
iary, Consolidated Gas Utilities; Arkan-
sas Power & Light, Louisiana Power,
New Orleans Public Service and Utah
Power e. Light, the four latter repre-
sented only by preferred shares.
American Power & Lights subsidiaries,
such as Florida Power g. Light, Kansas
Gas & Electric. Minnesota Power T.
Light, Nebraska Power, Pacific Power s.
Light and Texas Power g. Light, have
only their senior shares on the curb.
National Power & Light not only lists
Of Birmingham Electric, Carolina Power
Light, Pennsylvania Power & Light
and Memphis Power & Light.
American Gas & Electric, which
ranked eleventh in volume of trading
not only has listed its own preferred
and common stock but also the senior
shares of its subsidiaries, Ohio Power
and Scranton Electric.
When one or two of these shares de-
clined the rest of the group often fol-
lowed.
American Superpower typiles the
utility investment corporation, which
neither controls nor operates properties,
but merely invests in them. On the
curb 1t has its common stock and two
classes of preferred 1t owns blocks Of
Commonwealth e. Southern, United Cor
poration, Electric Bond & Share, Con-
solidated Gas, United Light Power,
Niagara Hudson Power, Brazilian Trac-
ton, Associated Telephone Utilities,
Electric Power & Light, American Gas &
Electric, Italian Superpower and Amer
| ican Power Light. Naturally the
shares Of American Superpower mirror
the movements in all of the securities
held in its investment portfolio.
Middle West Utilities, which ranked
about fourteenth in curb trading volume
during 1881, is an example of the hold
ing corporation which owns all of or
most of the common stocks of its sub
salaries. The company's own common
and preferred stock as well as option
warrants are dealt in on the curb
List Of Subsidiaries.
Middle West Utilities has the common
stock of the following subsidiaries, whose
!
| tral & Southwest Utilities, American
Public Service, Central Power & Light
Massachusetts,, Public Service of Okla
homa, Illinois Northern Utilities, Ken
lucky Utilities, Mississippi Valley Util-
| tiles, National Electric Power, Jersey
Central Power e. Light, Virginia Public
Service, New England Public Service,
Central Maine Power. Central Vermont
Public Service, Seaboard Public Service,
Cumberland County Power e. Light,
Penn Central Light & Power, Northwest
| Utilities and Wisconsin Power Light
| In addition there are small amounts
OF common as we'll as the preferred
shares of National Public Service, an
other Middle West Utilities subsidiary.
as we'll as common shares of Municipal
| Service and United Public Service
| This close interrelationship of Middle
West results in numerous public utility
preferred issues selling off every time
! the common stock of the parent COM
! pany declines.
Public utility preferred issues of the
| highest grade, like Electric Bond &,
Share Sc preferred, showed fluctuations
of more than SO points during the
year despite the continuance of their
/ dividends and maintenance of strong
safety margin for such dividend pay
]
| caused by selling movements sympa- :
thetic with those Of their junior shares
| Or the common stock of the parent COM
/ pany: liquidation by distressed indWid-
/ uals who usually first sold their highest
| grade securities because they were most
| readily turned into cash or because
+ they felt that common stocks from
| these DEBATED levels had the most
promising appreciation possibilities, and
liquidation by trusts and institutions
whose bylaws compelled them to sell
stocks when they reached certain levels
| Petroleum shares, as a group, piled
up the second greatest group volume.
Overproduction and its resultant low
prices caused many dividend reductions
even in the Standard group-and
some omissions. notably by Gulf Oil
worlds third largest producer
Standard Oil of Indiana. with a turn
over of more than 100000 shares.
ranked first in the oils, with Interna-
tional Petroleum and Imperial Oil. Ltd.
two Canadian subsidiaries of Standard
on of New jersey, poor second and
third volume producers. About mid
year the Curb lost Vacuum Oil, because
| of its combination with Standard Oil
of New York into socony-Vacuum
Corporation which was moved to the
big board.
Gold Stocks Rise
Gold stocks were the most prominent
mining issues. They were the only
group throughout the year-excepting
a few extra payments on silver mines
made in the first half-to enjoy initial
increased or extra dividends Despite
such dividend showing and despite
firm to rising price trends, it was i'm
possible to attract market following
on the Curb to gold stocks
Noranda Mines. one of the best COM
mission producers was transferred to
the big board during the year, but its
place in trading popularity was filled
partly by Lake Shore Mines. NeWmont
Mining. a holding company, suffered
from the general decline in copper, lead
and zinc shares, with those metals at
the lowest prices since quotation rec
ords were kept
Although Goldman Sachs, owing to a
series of f1urries on merger reports, and
United Founders piled up considerable
volume, all types of investment trusts
moved slowly. This was true even of
Atlas Utilities, which was outstanding
for the way 1t absorbed or acquired
other trusts.
Foreign shares like Ford Motor. Ltd
which ranked about eighth in volume;
General Electric, Ltd. and Roam An
telope we're not only sold by their over
seas holders to American investors, but
London SPECTATORS were compelled to
curtail their activities because arbitrag-
ing is virtually impossible in security
markets when foreign exchanges are
f1uctuating widely.
Then again the distress of foreign
banks and brokerage houses usually un-
loosened a flood of liquidation here
Brazilian Traction, normally enjoying
an active three-way market in London
Montreal and New York, was typical
Although its net income suffered from
decreased Brazilian business and none
tary instability, the maximum selling
pressure on this stock came immedi-
ately after the failure of Canadian
brokerage house sponsoring it.
UnAl the Canadian dollar dropped tc
wide discount there were good arbi-
TRACE markets between Montreal, To-
ronto and New York for stocks like In
pnfr