Abstract

Finance

This article focuses on the impact of political developments in the U.S., on the New York Stock Exchange. After the spread of news of Woodrow Wilson's nomination in Baltimore, Maryland, steel, one of the most active stocks, declined from 72 to 71. The following morning, the news from Baltimore being complete, the stock market opened at an advance of half to 1 per cent, declined straightway one to two and a half points, recovered half-way, and closed dull. These facts are set down in some detail, as they mark, perhaps, the extreme of a stock market's indifference to politics. May and June were months of political excitement, and, yet, the average price of, say, twenty railway stocks and twelve industrials, which are commonly used for statistical purposes, never varied so much.