Evening star., 1932-02-10
BONDS ARE LOWER
/ IN SMALL TRADING
Prices Drift Downward Fol.
lowing Steady Opening.
Support Is Evident.
BY +. H. RICHARDSON,
Special Dispatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, February 10.-Bonds
worked narrowly lower today in trading
OF unimportant dimensions.
The market opened with q steady
tone, neither side having very much
ammunition in the way of news to go
| on. Then prices started a drifting
| movement that carried speculative is
sues of a point or more. Railroad
bonds came in for the heaviest pres
sure, but in most cases support, al
thoug h of an Indifferent nature, checked
the declines at point or so under
Tuesdays closing levels.
Forecasters just now are pusily en-
gagged in arguing that with reduced
operating costs, such as wages, a
slightly higher scale Of freight rates
and with the exceedingly poor year Of
| 1881 as comparative background, it
would not take much in the nature of
| recovery to start railroad earnings
upward. Others endeavor to show that
one 1avorite method Of cutting costs
by deferring maintenance work-can
hardly be employed again in 1882 and
! mat the enormous backlog Of deferred
| maintenance will offset the advantages
| that nave accrued to the position of the
carriers. Second-grade rails such as
Erie IS, Missouri-Pacific SIS, Allegheny
| Corporation IS, Missouri Kansas Texas
adjustments, Southern Pacific 4las, IL
Iinols Central refunding 4s. New Haven
| 4L2s and Chesapeake Corporation 5s
all dropped a point or more today be-
fore q partial recovery set In.
The plan OF the Reconstruction FL
| nance Corporation to market its bonds
! throughout the country, in drive sim
| liar TO the liberty loan campaigns, was
iaVorably received 1t was believed that
a popular bond-selling campaign lust
| now might have a beneficial effect in
! enllst1ng the cooperation of the people
behind the Governments plans to sta
blllze business. 1t was thought that the
bonds could be marketed in this way
around per cent basis, with some
small additional cost to the Govern
ment to finance the drive Outstanding
Treasury and liberty bonds today sold
OH ny small fractions on a turnover
considerably smaller than Tuesdays.
Hlgh-grade domestic descriptions
| were generally firm. American Tele-
F., phone IS remained steady. West Penn
sylvania Power first IS, Tennessee Elec-
trio Power 6s New York Edison SIS and
| other prime utility obligations were firm
to shade higher. Atchison General As,
Union Pacific first As, Norfolk & West
ern As and other carrier bonds of the
best investment grades were also firm.
Bonds had minor fluctuations at the
| opening. Trading was at a slow pace.
| Most price changes were fractional and
were spread so evenly on both sides
that the markets trend was inde-
terminate.
In the foreign list German govern
| ment issues were off by a small amount,
rejecting a London report that the
Bank of France would shortly call its
Reichsbank credit
Great Britain 5las were unchanged,
mirroring a firm tone in sterling quo
tations. Italy rs were lower. Other
Europeans were little changed Jap
anese issues were slow to open, but
held firm price levels
In the domestic department a few
railroad bonds. such as Missouri Pa
ciflc SIS, Southern Pacific 4l2s and Bal
timore & Ohio 4l2s were narrowly
higher. but in other descriptions Of
equivalent quality small declines ap-
peared. United States Government
issues were firm.