Evening star., 1932-12-07
STOCK LIST FAILS
To HOLD ALL GAIN
Weakness Develops at Last
of Session-Net Changes
Are Irregular.
BY GEORGE T. HUGHES.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, December stocks
continued their advance in the early
trading of today's session, but weakened
in the last hour and leSt off with irreg-
ular net changes.
There were two uncertainties that
affected business toward the close One
was the New York City maturity today,
which had to be met unless the
municipality were to default. and the
other was the international outlook,
which depended on the debt conference
in Paris.
Prefer to Wait.
Both of these situations will be cleared
up one way or the other by tomorrow,
and spectators apparently were anxious
to await the outcome before extending
commitments
Sterling exchange rallied vigorously
and at S3.24l2 in the late afternoon
was up 37s cents, the highest of this
higher. but most commodities simply
marked time. The strongest outside
market was silver, up over IS points
late in the day.
The stock market was dull on the
last hour irregularity, but American
Telephone came down nearly 2 points
from its best and Steel common ranged
under the previous close.
The market opened higher and slowly
forged ahead all through the first two
hours. The stocks that made the best
showing were those in which there was
the largest short account, such as Allied
Chemical, up over 2 points on top of
yesterdays advance Of nearly points.
Allied Chemical is the stock on which
the largest premium is charged for
under the leadership of Atchison and
Union Pacific, both in new high ground
on the recovery.
Join in Upturn.
Other popular issues to sell higher
included American Telephone among.
the utilities, j. l. Case among the farm
stocks. Westinghouse Electric. Ameri-
can Can and United States Steel COM
mon and preferred Other rails in
demand were Lackawanna, Pennsyl-
vania, New York Central and Delaware
81 Hudson. The last named had gone
up 6 points yesterday. despite which it
forged ahead still further.
The inspiration for the buying did
not come from the industrial news.
The Iron Age reported that "steel Or
ders continue to dwindle" and added
that production was down another
notch to 16 per cent of capacity. Scrap
prices have weakened in nearly all CEN
ters, it was. said. Electric power out
put was of 96 per cent on the week.
Last week the drop was only 7.8 per
cent. The poorest showing was made
by the central industrial district and
the best by New England.
The market seemed to be registering
confidence in the course of events at
Washington. Although the strength
of the opposition was not underesti-
mated, it was believed that q sales tax
would be enacted. Then there was q
good deal of talk about the so-called
domestic allotment plan for restoring
agricultural prices to a profitable level.
Traders in securities, in fact. were ap-
parently more impressed with the idea
than those In commodities.
Sterling Stages Rally.
Sterling exchange rallied again to-
day. At the opening 1t was quoted at
1928, up 23s cents, later canceling
part Of the rise. Francs locally were
unchanged but in Paris the dollar sold
at the highest price in over two years.
An exception to the prevailing firm
ness was American Water Works g.
Electric, which dropped nearly 2 points
on the halving of the common quarter
ly dividend. The directors declared a
payment Of Is cents a share against so
cents previously disbursed. Earnings
for the IL months ended October 81,
1882. were $1.66 share.
For the most part. however. the divi-
dend news was favorable American
Smelling paid an extra Of Is cents, the