Evening star., 1937-07-18
STOCKS EDGE UP
IN NEAR DULLEST
SESS|0N0F YEAR
Heat, Court Bill, War Talk
and French Crisis Are
Retarding Factors.
BOND MARKET REPORTS
GAINS IN sPECIALTIEs
Utilities Higher on Curb, While
1ndustrials and Oils Lack
Activity.
RANGE OF so STOCK
BY FREDERICK GARDNER,
Associated Press FlnancioI UrItar

HSsOSItbtu EIeSS FINANCIAL writer,
NEW YORK, July l7.-With the
temperature high and vitality low,
traders in todays brief stock market
session merely made feeble motions.
While few steels, rails, coppers and
specialties managed to creep forward
sufnciently to put the Associated Press
average ahead Il OF a point at 676,
there actually we're 1873 losers at the
close as against 1863 advances. Only
sos issues changed hands and 1853
OF these ended unchanged.
1t was the second slowest day of the
year. 24S,340 shares passing over the
crawling ticker tape. Transfers last
Saturday totaled 297 500.
Aside from the weather, brokers said
the buying urge was retarded prin.
cipally by doubts as to the outcome
OF the new court bill fight at Wash.
lngton. tension over the Far Eastern
war f1are-up and a new French finan-
ciai crisis.
With a new flight of capital under
way from Paris to London, the French
franc broke .O5a, of cent to ar
cents. a bottom mark since 1926.
Facing = heavy deficit the French
treasury was thus far said to have
discovered no practical way of raising
lunos. Sterling, in terms Of the dol
lar, was unchanged at s4.97ss.
More Favorable Earnings.
Commodities provided no especial
inspiration for stocks. Wheat at
Chlcago was Is Of cent a bushel up
to OF a.. Corn was down \ Ia a.
Cotton was unchanged to 10 cents .
bale lower. Bonds were quiet and un-
even.
Another batch OF favorable second
quarter earnings figures cheered the
nnanclal sector and few stocks
seemingly responded. The majority
however, ignored the good news.
Reports Of good profits for Warner
Bros. gave this issue flllip of = NJ
point at l4l2. The same was true
OF Armour which edged up J. at 12l,
United States Steel Cancelled an
early drop OF point or 50 and
emerged with gain of as at 1lsl,
II was the most active performer of
the day. Others up fractions to !
included Chrysler at lol7.. Texas
corp. 63&s: Kennecott, 5slz; New
York Central. 39i2; Southern Railway
S2S.; Santa Fe, 8l7s; Gair Co., 1871:
Westinghouse, l49; Continental Oil.
a. spiegel. Inc. 1884,; Bethlehem.
S3Hs, and United States Rubber. 6o
Youngstown Sheet IL Tube, although
tne company announced the calling
OF the remainder of its debentures.
was OF q. at 8912. Others on the
losing side were American Telephone.
1922; Union Pacific. 1907; Union
Carbide. 1oll2; Douglas Aircraft,
58a; Standard Oil OF New JERSEY.
wa ana Montgomery Ward, 6ll4.
Bond Market Irregular.
The bond market closed with most
issues little changed from the pre-
v1ous finals. Federal loans showed a
hrm front in quiet turnover. Domestic
corporate obligations held about even
with some specialties pushing up for
gains Of around a point.
Foreign dollar loans attracted
little attention. japanese obligations
continued under pressure as traders
awaited the outcome of the Sino-
Japanese conflict. South American
issues were frightened somewhat by
strength in Brazilians which rose
fractions to q point following an
nouncement OF a United States-
Brazilian currency sterilization agree
ment
As an indication of reduced volume
transactions for all bonds totaled So
$4,000. compared with $2,8l4,00O last
Saturday.
Although the Associated Press aver
ages showed decline of Il of a point
for 20 rails, some sections of this
division went ahead St. Paul s.
climbed y to 26as and B. & o. 41,s
edged up as to end at 7O7s. New York
Central 314s gave up "a to close at
108A. Northern Pacific general 3s
and Southern Pacific AVS worked 4
little lower.
Curb stocks were steady to fraction
ally higher in quiet trading. Utilities
pushed forward a bit while industrials
and oils were Indifferent.
American Gas g. Electric gained a
modest fraction to close at 341a, and
Electric Bond & Share was up u to
1872. Arkansas Natural Gas and Nj
agara Hudson were lower by minor
fractions.
American Cyanamid "B," Fairchild
Aviation, United Gas, Ford Motor and
Wright Hargreaves followed q level
course. Lower were Hudson Bay. I'M
perial Oil, st. Regis Paper and E. w.
Bliss.
Improving fractions were Glen Al
den, Sunray OIL, Mead johnson and
Consolidated Copper
Sales totaled $4,000 shares, COM
pared with last Saturdays transfers Of
$4,000 shares.