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Show Sag in Steel Shares Leads Stock AAart Into .Minor (Decline FINAL TRADING STEADIES BOARD . By VICTOR El'BANK Associated Press Financial EdiUr NEW YORK, Jan. -Stela showtjd tha way for a moderate stock market decllna Wednesday. Lossea of fractions to around two polntsj w'r registered throughout tha lilt as tha liquidation spread from leading stsels in jsarly dealings deal-ings to other groups. Thtj market steadied In lata trading, but rallies were small. Transactions, heavier An the decline, de-cline, kpproxfmated SAO.poo share. The United States Suel corporation's corpora-tion's fourth quartet earnings report, re-port, which soma brokers called a bit "disappointing" In view of preliminary pre-liminary estimates, wai cited in trading rooms as tha main excuse for the selling. Analysts noted tha steel corporation's profits, amounting amount-ing to about $3 a share for tha common, had been drawn for special spe-cial chargea In tha final period of 1040. "Bia: 'Steel" common at one time was off mora than two points. Other prominent losers were Bethlehem, Youn.stowA Sheet, Sears Roebuck, Chrysler. American Ameri-can Smelting, Du Pont. Eastman, Douglas, United Aircraft. Bant Fa, American Can and Washing house. Down fractions to more than a point lii tha curb list at Jons time were Aluminum of America, Mead Johtviort. American Lightl A Traction, Trac-tion, BH1 Aircraft, E. W. Bliss and Gulf Oi . Foreign news, chiefly the speculation spec-ulation fibout a mighty forthcoming axis blow against tha British isles and the death of Premier) Metaxaa of Grei ce, was judged by some market commentators as an influence in-fluence in tha selling. Mny trad-era, trad-era, it waa pointed out. have avoided buying In anticipation of a spring attempt by the axis ta gain a decision in Europe. Existence of large backlogs of unfilled orders In steel Was confirmed con-firmed t y the disclosure U. S. Steel had enough business on lta books to keeb milla busy for three months Iron Age said the Increasing demand de-mand fr the metal for defense had created a problem on i hlpment scheduling. "In spite of the tighter lltuatlon that is developing," said the trade publication, "there is no pressure either from the industry, ita customers cus-tomers or the government for tha use of mandatory priori tiei." Copper shares seemed ta have been affected by overnight reports a priority control waa abo it to be established In Washington for non-ferrous non-ferrous metala. A second 100,000-ton deal for Import of copper from South Arierlca waa reported In negotiation ne-gotiation by tha Metal Reserve company, a federal agency. |