Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1949-01-16
THE SUNDAY STAR, Washington, D. c.
SUNDAY. JANUARY Is 1919.
Stock Prices Sagged
During Week, Ending
Rally After New Year
By WiIIiom D. Horeon
Associated Press Financial Writer

NEW YORK, Jan. 15.-A New
Year rally in the stock market died
on the vine this week.
Day by day the price level slowly
sagged until Saturdays two-hour
session when the hghtest of demand
turned out to be enough to prop the
market.
During the first week of the year
quotations on the average moved
ahead smartly and Wall Street, al
ways hoping for the best. claimed
that the signs and portents held out
the promise of sustained rise. The
signs and portents-and this was no
novelty in the financial district
are wrong thus far.
Investors and spectators were
waiting for something to hapen but
nobody seemed quite sure what they
were waiting for or when to expect
it. The volume CT trading on the
exchange dropped to a total that
put more than one brokerage house
In the red for the week.
Message Taken Calmly.
The Presidents budget message
was received on Monday with nota-
BILE calm. The calm, SO far as the
market was concerned, Powered into
outright apathy for the balance OF
the week.
At least two flies showed up in the
market ointment: The Presidents
legislative program and (Which was
more importantly what Congress
would do to it, and multiplying re-
ports that the postwar sellers mar
ket was disappearing.
Probably the biggest question the
market had posed before 1t was
where the President would get the
$4,000 100000 in additional taxes he
asked. Some segments of the Con-
. gress were evidently prepared either
to refuse fatty a tax raise or dras-
tically revise the Presidents figure.
This normally would be encouraging
news to traders, but, if 1t was, stock
prices gave little indication.
AS for market reaction to signs
that business was slowing down here
and there, there was equally little
logic. According to large group
Of hindsight specialists, the market
has been discounting a business re-
cession ever since the end of the
war. In the meantime, OF course,
the market has ignored a couple OF
the most prosperous years in the
Nations history. The fact that div
idends poured out at record rate
had little or no effect on stock prices.
Outlook Is Good.
The outlook for this year-barring
a major economic calamity-is as
good or better in the dividend field.
Granting that business may slow
down a bit (and few of the experts
expect it will do more than that,
corporations will probably have more
money to hand out to stockholders
than ever before. Profits may be
trimmed, but business will not be
pumping so much into its expansion
and improvement programs, and
that unused money will be available
for dividend checks.
The smooth surface Of the market
was churned up late in the week
with a threat to one of Wall Streets
most cherished traditions. Amer1-
can Telephone g. Telegraph Co. was
under governmental fire and the
price of the stock dropped a couple
of dollars to the lowest level since
1943. A. T. Il T. declined point
Friday and rs points on Saturday,
unusually large swings for what Is
regarded as one of the most stable
Of all stocks traded on the exchange.
The Justice Department suit