Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-07-14
Stock Market Near
StandstiII al End
OF Foggy Week
Session One Of SIowest
In Lost n Years;
Average Unchanged


Associated Press Financial Writer.
NEW YORK, July 13.-In one of
the slowest half-dozen sessions of
the past 70 years, the stock market
today staggered out Of foggy week
without displaying any real sense
Of direction.
Brokers again blamed the do
nothing attitude of speculative
forces on the desire to wait the out
come Of next weeks national De-
mocratic convention and q possible
imminent Hitler blast at England.
It was notable, however. that while
buyers generally gave the market
a wide berth, sellers were equally
timid.
The Associated Press average Of
60 stocks was unchanged at ALL and,
on the week, was Oh 2. The COM
posite also held at dead center on
the preceding Tuesday, Wednesday
and Thursday. It slipped i Monday
and as much Friday. Out Of 1898
listed issues only 37l changed hands
today. OF these, 126 were up, 102
down and 143 at where they finished
Friday.
Defense Program . Factor.
Transfers Of $4,000 shares, while
one Of the lowest since 1918, actually
touched q new bottom since July 8,
1899. The volume last Saturday
was 1871, 879 shares.
Under the circumstances, most
analysts seemed pretty we'll salts
fed with today's proceedings. Help
ing the list to keep its balance, they
said, was the feeling the huge do
nestle defense program would soon
begin to make an impression on
many lines of industry. On the con-
structive side we're forecasts of an
other upturn In next weeks steel
mill operations. larger freight load
ings. further year-to-year increases
in the country's department store
sales and . sharp Jump in new bond
fioations. both for new financing
and refundipg purposes.
Among the days minor gamers
were General Motors, United States
Rubber, Boeing, Douglas Aircraft,
Glenn Martin, United Aircraft,
Southern Pacific, Southern Railway,
Homestake Mining, American Tele-
phone and North American.
Packard moved up q fraction on
word the company's directors finally
had approved a general arrange
ment" to manufacture 5000 airplane
engines for the United States and
Great Britain after an earlier hitch
had developed.
Unchanged to down a shade were
United States Steel, Bethlehem,
Chrysler. Anaconda, Kennecott,
Johns-Manville, Texas Corp, West
ern Union and Great Northern.
Improve on Curb.
A bit ahead in a spotty curb were
Aluminium Of America, E. w. Bliss
and Bell Aircraft. On the offside
were Glen Alden Coal, Sherwin-
Williams and International Petro-
leum. Dealings here were around
$4,000 shares, compared with 10000
a week ago.
Railway bonds were favored In
a sluggish bond department. Com
modities were uneven. Wheat at
Chicago was unchanged to up u
cent a bushel and corn was un-
changed to OF 81. Cotton was 10
cents bale lower to IS cents higher.
Stock traders found scant stimula-
ton in the news from Monday on,
as was evidenced by the virtual
immobility of the Associated Press
averages daily. The expected re-
bound in steel mill output from the
4th of July weeks letdown had little
effect on prices. Lack of details
concerning proposed excess profits
tax legislation continued as handi-
cap. A rupup in utilities Wednes-
day was ignored by other groups.
The list tried unsuccessfully for re-
covery Thursday on the Washington
move to permit munitions manu-
facturers to write of plant expan-
sion costs over five-year period.