First Quarter

Not for several weeks will anxious stock-holders know how their companies fared during the first quarter of 1930. But with the end of March, U. S. stock markets were able to look back, see how their business had been. For the most part, brokerage business turned out to be much better than was anticipated during the first Post-Panic weeks, when many predictions of a long period of stagnant trading were heard

New York Stock Exchange. On the chief U. S. market, January resulted in sales of only 62,308,290 shares against 110,803,940 in booming January of 1929. In February the breach was narrowed, by the end of March sales for the first quarter, bolstered by the reappearance of 5,000,000 share days, were 227,579,470 against 294,410,000 last year. But in March 1930 there were 1,300 issues listed, a gain of 100 over March 1929.

During this time the prognosticated "creeping bear market" turned out to be, at least for the period, a "creeping bull market." On Jan. 2 the Dow Jones averages stood at (industrials) 244.20, (rails) 144.68 and (utilities) 286.38. By March 31 they had climbed to (industrials) 286.10, (rails) 157.28 and (utilities) 106.13. Notable was the fact that the first stocks to start recovering included most of the utilities (which had suffered severely in the crash). Union Carbide, American Tel. & Tel., Steel, American Can, General Electric continued as leaders. Stocks which started the year off poorly remained soft. Selling of Montgomery Ward on lower earnings, Gillette on beclouded patent situations, Simmons on a truer understanding of its sales figures, Industrial Alcohol on lower prices, sent these issues to new lows.

Disconcerting to "constructive interest'' was the volume of trading and the lateness of the ticker, a condition apt to cause confusion, violent moves. To abate this, new tickers are being installed, may be ready in 60 days. Instead of the present 260 characters a minute, the new ones will zoom by with 700. Electric quotation boards are also being put into service. The first was placed in the uptown office of Sutro & Co. last May. There are now 65 in Manhattan, and some will be installed in Western offices soon.

Curb. On the New York Curb, which now boasts that 1,334 of its 2,260 stocks are dividend-payers, trading was far behind last year, with sales for the three months coming to 62,005,770 against 102,704,800. One source of worry to Curb brokers is the report that Sydney Zollicoffer Mitchell's Electric Bond & Share, which often accounts for nearly 10% of trading, will be moved to the "Big Board."

Seats. With volume picking up, the value of seats increased. The low on the Stock Exchange was $390,000, the last $425,000, the all-time high $625,000. The last curb seat to sell was for $185,000, a gain of $45,000 over the low, but still $69,000 behind the high.

Bonds. With lower interest rates, much money has drifted to the bond market causing great activity in that section. From 93.85 on Jan. 2, the bond average has risen to 95.41. Volume for the quarter, on the Stock Exchange, was $761,247,000, more than last year's $642,178,300, but less than 1928's $851,156,850 and far below 1927's $976,352,900. Especially active was the foreign bond division.

Chicago. Modeled on the New York Stock Exchange, the Chicago Stock Exchange is what brokers term "a good market." Chief boast at present among Chicago houses is that volume on their Exchange is unique in its performance of running ahead of 1929. For the first quarter, sales came to 19,100,700 shares against 17,046,000 last year. New listings have played some part in this, Marshall Field and Greyhound Bus Lines, both recently added, being very active.

Ticker service from Chicago stretches to 32 cities, all but two of which have been added since June 1928. Six cities, including Washington, Philadelphia and Boston, have had this service put in since the Break. Within 60 days, the Exchange promises, ticker service will reach the Pacific Coast.

Seats on the Chicago market sold as high as $50,000 in September, dropped to $24,000 in November, are back to $32,000 now. A bull on Chicago is Robert Arthur Wood, president of the Exchange. His two sons are 17 and 15 years old, yet he confidently predicts : "By the time my sons are old enough to be Exchange members (21 years), seats will be selling for a quarter of a million each. Such a rise would be less than that which has already occurred." President Wood is 43, is the only man to be a three-time president of the Chicago Exchange. He entered the bond business in 1915 after an unsuccessful attempt at farming in Washington, bought his seat three years later. He was an independent trader until the first of this year when he became a partner of Clement, Curtis & Co.

San Francisco. Recently San Francisco newspapers screamed in big type: PRESIDENT OF STOCK EXCHANGE UNDER INDICTMENT. To casual readers it of course suggested malpractice, dishonesty, perhaps collapse of the Exchange. To people familiar with the case, however, it seemed more an unfortunate technicality. Two dishonest employes of the Bank of Italy had been operating "dummy"' accounts through the firm of Leib, Keyston & Co., whose senior partner. George N. Keyston, California socialite, is president of the Exchange. Other San Francisco brokers, claiming the firm could not have known these accounts were false, refused to receive customers who wanted to switch from Leib. Keyston, refused to accept the permanent resignation of President Keyston. Meanwhile, under the guidance of Bertram E. Alanson, vice president and longtime (1908) member, the Exchange finished its first three months in its new building.

The San Francisco Stock Exchange Building, opened Jan. 4, is the pride of California financiers. A description of it by the Building Committee reads: "It expresses architecturally the purposes of the constitution.* Its classic colonnade, its symbolic sculpture, its lofty and spacious trading floor are character transmuted into form. Surrounded by towering office buildings it stands alone, withdrawn somewhat, from the street by a cordon of green lawn and foliage, a massive and enduring monument to the ideals of its founders and those who carry on."

On its modern & modernistic trading floor are 75 members. Nine are "specialists" in certain issues; six handle odd-lot transactions. Translux projectors give New York Stock Exchange and San Francisco Curb prices.

The Exchange dates from 1882 when 19 brokers organized it with provisions for six other memberships at $50 each. Its first title was just "The Stock and Bond Exchange." later "San Francisco" was added, and 1927 the present title of "San Francisco Stock Exchange" was purchased from what is now the drowsy if not dormant "San Francisco Mining Exchange" where penny-shares sometimes thrill by becoming dollar-stocks for a while.

Most of the stock traded in on the San Francisco Exchange are western companies some of which, like Transamerica, Standard Oil of Calif., Pacific Lighting, Union Oil, Kolster Radio, Richfield Oil, Southern Pacific, California Packing, Pacific Gas & Electric, are well-known in the East. Of the 50 firms registered as members five are firms originating in New York, eleven firms originating in San Francisco but with seats on the New York Exchange.*

Certain local customs prevail on the San Francisco Exchange. Striking to Eastern visitors is the fact that San Francisco brokerage offices must open at 7 o'clock in the winter, 6 o'clock during the daylight saving period to receive New York quotations. And confusing is the fact that ''Floormen," the title usually reserved for members only, is used in San Francisco to designate "Customers' Men." Many of these "Floormen" also serve as alarm clocks, awakening customers at an appointed hour to give them tidings from New York. Just as the New York Stock Exchange is on Broad, not Wall Street, the San Francisco Exchange is on Sansome Street instead of Montgomery, "Wall Street of the West."

San Francisco speculators, badly hurt when Bancitaly collapsed in 1927, had hardly recovered when last fall's crash took place, carrying Kolster through a decline much greater than the average. Perhaps for this reason, plus the fact that there is never a large short interest in San Francisco stocks, trading for the first quarter was approximately 20% below that of the first three months last year. But San Francisco brokers, unperturbed, confidently await full development of "The Empire of the West."

* The aims and purposes of the San Francisco Exchange, according to its constitution: "To develop and maintain just and equitable principles of trade and business. ... To promote and enforce high standards of commercial honor and integrity.'' *San Francisco firms with New York membership: Anderson & Fox, J. Earth & Co., H. J. Barneson & Co., Wilcox Drake & Co., Wm. Cavalier & Co., Graves, Banning & Co., Schwabacher & Co., Sutro & Co., Walsh O'Conner & Co., Dean Witter & Co., Chapman De Wolfe & Co. New York firms with San Francisco membership are: E. F. Hutton & Co., Logan & Bryan, McDonnell & Co., E. A. Pierce & Co., Russell, Miller & Co.

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