Evening star., 1931-12-28
|STOCK PRICES SAG
| ON SMALL VOLUME
Resumption Of Trading Is
Marked by Further De-
cIines in List.
BY GEORGE T. HUGHES.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star
NEW YORK, December 2S-Busi-
ness was resumed today on the Stock
Exchange, after the triple holiday with
the downward trend still in evidence.
Stocks sagged on small volume largely
because of tax selling, the time for
which is becoming short. but partly be-
cause of further liquidation.
There were one or two items of en-
couraging news over the week end af-
fecting particular corporations, but the
general situation showed no change.
Granting of higher communication rates
to the LackaWanna road was hailed as
significant of changed attitude toward
the railways on the part of the regu-
lating authorities. Lackawanna was
one of the few stocks to sell higher,
showing to point gain during the
early trading. In general, the railway
shares made better showing than the
tndustrials or the utilities, although
there were weak spots in the rails, one
of which was Baltimore g. Ohio.
New Lows Recorded
Elsewhere in the list a number of
important new lows we're recorded. One
was American Telephone e. Telegraph,
under 113 for the first time. Another
was Westinghouse Electric, under %,
where it was diScounting unfaVorable
dividend action. Still another was Con-
SOlidated Gas on which traders seem
to have turned bearish without any
particular reason. United States Steel,
American Can, Allied Chemical and
General Electric were all heavy. East
man Kodak made new low before
noon, off almost 4 points from Thurs
days close.
The market was thin on both sides.
Had there been any important buying.
orders could not have been filled ex-
cept at substantial advances. There
was, however no effective demand.
Banking interests were said to be TAX
ing stocks on a scale down, but that
sort Of buying does not show for long
time.
For time General Baking advanced
against the trend. The low price of
flour has helped the baking companies
and an officer of General Baking was
recently quoted as saying that his COM
pany would add 100000 to surplus this
year after all dividends. Other food
stocks reacted. Corn Products and
Shattuck were two instances.
Except for the Allied Chemical meet
ing Tuesday, the market has no i'm
portant dividend dates to trouble it.
Allied Chemical Is said to be earning
the full Sc rate, but the price Of the
stock would indicate there was some
doubt about it's maintenance. However,
in this market stocks fell off regardless
of prospects.
Call money renewed at per cent and
was in moderate supply at that rate,
with some calling of loans.
Opening Prices Irregular.
Price trends we're mixed at the open
ing.
The rails were one of the few groups
that displayed a fairly uniform up
ward tendency. Norfolk & Western
opened up points at 1T. Chicago &
Northwestern was up = at ga. New
York Central rose "a to %.
Over-the-holiday developments in
cluded a new low recorded by weekly
commodity price averages, drop OF "a
cents in sterling here to S3.4l1 p, and
the announcement Of numerous SPECIFIC
steel construction projects.
United States Steel opened at 375s,
off Il. Bethlehem Steel at l8 declined
IA point to a new low. General Elec-
trio gained "a to 2434: Most OF the
food stocks, such as National Biscuit
at 391s, National Dairy Products at
227s and Standard Brands at 1914,
were fractionally lower. American Can
at 6lM was unchanged, as was j. I.
Case at 40 General Motors lost Il at
22h4 and Auburn Auto was down "a at
i2934. American Telephone declined
81 to 11424. Consolidated Gas rose q
to so. International Telephone was up
"a at 83s, but North American was
off y at 32I4 Reynolds Tobacco B
dropped 4 to 33 and Standard Oil Of
California decreased 3s to 1884.