Evening star., 1932-11-28
INTEREST CENTERS
IN POUNDS DROP
Stocks Swing Back and Forth
in Narrow Range as
Traders Wait.
BY GEORGE r. HUGHES.

special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK. November 28-Sterling
exchange selling at 3.171a today made
an all-time low. 1t was the fiuctua-
tions in this market rather than in
stocks on which attention of the finan-
cial community was concentrated.
The share list hardly moved at all.
Commodities were heavy to weak, but
it was the exchanges which monopolized
interest.
A rally TO s3.1sai in the late after
noon still left the pound down 81
cents on the day. French francs were
unimportantly lower. The other Euro
pean gold currencies advanced. frac-
tlonally for Belgian and Swiss francs
and 4 points for guilders. Montreal
exchange went off with sterling.
Among the few features in the stock
market were the quiet strength in Nor
folk & Western. moderate amount of
short covering in Coca Cola and a
fresh attempt to bid up the gold stocks.
At the end changes of more than a
traction were the exception.
Inc opening quotation for sterling on
this side was S3l9ls, off 27s from Sat
urday's close. From this point there
was steady decline until around mid
DAY transactions were effected at
$3.l7I2, down Az and at a new record
low
Few believed that Great Britain was
accumulating dollars at this late day
to meet the December Is instaIlment of
interest and principal on its war debt.
Naturally there was no authoritative in
formation on this point available either
nrly II - Il
seem reasonable that the British
treasury would have waited so long to
make provision for what it must needs
do only little more than two weeks
hence.
On the other hand, II there were
speculative selling the source of those
operations was kept carefully concealed.
The best opinion was that most of it
was coming from continental European
centers. There was no sign Of support
by the British treasury, elthough.a a little
buying came into the market In the
early afternoon, advancing the sterling
quotation from the extreme low.
Considering the concern with which
the decline in sterling exchange was
viewed. our stock market was remark
ably steady. There was hardly a change
of point in the pivotal shares after
TWO hours OF business. Activity was
down almost to the vanishing point.
So far as it went that was favorable
sign. 1t was again true that the only
aggressive buying was in the gold
mining stocks, under the leadership of
Homestake, which set new years high
but it was equally true that there was
no liquidation whatever in any group
Railroad stocks were firm, but they
did not respond to the accumulating
evidences OF better than seasonal in
crease in traffic. The October railroad
earning statements, taken as a whole,
were encouraging, although there were
further losses in both gross and net
compared with the same month a year
ago in individual reads To reflect this,
the stock market stood aside for the
bond market.
Commodities were nearly all lower
during the early trading. In London
silver went to new record low, but in
New York silver futures were higher.
Wheat lost tractionally in Chicago Cot
ton was down unimportantly, as was
cocoa. All these markets were affected
directly or indirectly by the weakness
in sterling. Montreal funds declined to
a 15l2 per cent discount.
Copyright. 1922