Evening star., 1932-10-16
Stock Battle of Professional
Element Has Resulted
in Draw.
INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS
is NOTED DURING WEEK
Retail Trade Was Well Maintain
ed, but Commodity Prices Have
Been Extremely Weak.
BY CHARLES F. SPEARE.

D1 SuhhLLO
Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK. october 15.-Except in
the item of interest rates, and the
greater conspicuousness of excess bank
ing credit, the fundamentals of the
financial situation are the same today
as week ago. The wide fluctuations in
stocks that have occurred simply repre-
sent battle between the professional
traders. This, so far, has resulted in a
draw.
AS the national election is now only
about three weeks distant, it is natural
that the outcome and the possible con-
sequences from it should be the con-
trolling factor in markets for securities.
Wall Street last Summer felt that there
was possibility of Mr.. Hoover's re-
election. This was one Of the favoring
prospects on which the market advance
was erected. For the past month po-
lltical opinion and the betting odds
have swung the other way, and with
the increasing size of the straw vote for
Gov Roosevelt there has been a consid-
cradle amount of profit taking in stocks
purchased during the July August rise
and more activity among the bear ele-
ment. The latter went too far in their
campaign and. on Friday, paid the
penalty for their boldness.
Discounting Political Change.
The question now is whether the aver
age decline, amounting to nearly 60 per
cent of all the Summers advance, dis
counted the expected change in the ad-
ministratiCn or whether an additional
weight will be placed on securities in
hn - il
Street thinks there will be. The judg-
ment of the rest of the country, which
has been better than that of Wall
elimination of the political factor will
be relief to the majority of business
men. as well as to investors, and that
most of what is now being predicted as
unfavorable will not happen. 1t has
been obvious all through the campaign
that voters are interested primarily in
a return to more prosperous times and
that there was no capital to be made
this year out of calamity
In spite of the dispo; ition to move
more cautiously as election day ap-
proaches, there are additional evidences
this week of an increase in the indus
trial momentum. This has occurred
against the handicap of declining prices
of commodities, among which grain and
cotton have been notably weak. the
former at new low prices for the season
and the latter lo-ing about three
fourths CT its recent advance.
1t is significant, t2o, that the volume
of retail trade has been so well main
tanned, inasmuch as the first stimula-
ton in this direction in over year
apparently came from the revival of
confidence developed by the rise in
securities. of which over half has now
been lost.
There is no doubt that stocks today
are in truer relataion to their actual
values than they were early in Ssptem-
Der. The first half of the July-August
advance was quite legitimate. rejecting
the cash purchases of these who fully
appreciated the bargain character of the
securities they were buying. The latter
half Of the rise represented a rapid
capitalization of potentialities that only
the speculative element could imagine
and the accelerati-n Of prices by
methods that should be officially cen
demned.
Industrial Gains
The most substantial evidences of i'm
provement /, are in the transportation
industry Thsse are shown in the rising
totals of weekly carloadings and will
be reflected in the forthcoming Sep
ternber reports in satisfactory i'm
provement in net operating income. 1t
is fair to assume that during the last
four months of the calendar year many
of the carriers that have been compelled
to borrow to meet their maturing inter-
est and payments on equipment certif1-
Gates will be able to cover these charges
out of earnings.
There is scarcely an industrial center
in the East that has not shown some
improvement in the reduction of the
unemployed and an increase in COM
penss ton since those days in July when
securities and commodities and the
general index of business all registered
the lowest levels Of the depression.
Copyright. 1922