St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-04-18
OIL BUBBLE BURSTS
And Reckless Spectators
Get Caught in the
Crash.
BIG TUMBLE ON OPTIONS
Though the Price for Deliver
les Remained Firm at
$3.50.
EXCITEMENT MORE INTENSE
Course of the Market Today
Depends on the Action OF
the Standard.
EXCITEMENT MORE INTENSE

PITTSBUR RG, ApTIl IL HS VI
sn th- o., m ..-ket came at 2:3O unls
afternoon, and it descended upon the
Pittsburg exchange like thunder
storm. The market had been hover
ing about $262 all afternoon, Wqtn
light trading, and from the fact that
refined oil prices had received am
other lift today, no big break was
expected In fact, it was beneVec
that oil would close higher But at
2:30 the slump began, and in ten
minutes it had gone from $2.6Z 10
S2.37. The brokers stood about,
dazed by the suddenness of the
blow, and each quotation from the
Oil City exchange brought a lower
figure until $2.1O was reached. Tins
was Within few minutes of closing
time, and it rallied seven points,
closing at $217. There will be
MORE MONEY LOST
I'm the oil market this year than for
a long time past" This is the pre-
diction of the president of one of the
local pipe lines. He said that he did
not refer to the result of the trans
actions on the exchanges, but to the
operations in the field. Leases,
bonuses, royalties, materials and
labor are all being based on the ad-
vance in the price of crude oil. The
number of field operations last year
was II 500, the largest total since
1890. Notwithstanding this large in
crease, the production of new wells
was comparatively small. Approx
mately, SAT, 100000 was put into field
work. From reports already re-
ceived from the various regions the
number of operations and the ex-
penditure Involved will greatly ex-
ceed the total for last year. If oil is
struck in large quantities the mar
tainly decline, while the cost of OBJ
tanning it will have been based on
the present high figures. If oil is not
struck in large quantities the loss
will be equally great. In any event
millions will be sank in dry holes
The lowest sales were made at $215,
.Sod the lowest point touched was
sszYax0uSn the market fell So cents
during the day, it is estimated that
but few people lost, as most of the
oil held here was bought at figures
below 81. Besides this nearly all
the brokers have refused to handle
margins of less than 81 a barrel. The
market fell from $242 to $2.15 in 20
h,.11 l..
the slump by the fact that specu-
lators in Oil City became panic
stricken, and all tried to
SELL OUT AT ONCE.
The alarm was increased by the
fact that the Standard agents re-
fused to buy certificates from curb
stone brokers at the fixed price of
$3.50 per barrel, though they never
stopped taking oil from regular pro-
ducers at that figure. That is what
put the speculative price below that
of the Standard for cash oil.
In spite of the panic here not over
10000 barrels were sold all day.
Most of this was by Monday and
Tuesday purchasers who realized a
profit
A Standard official here today said
the scarcity of oil was not suffi-
cient to justify prices above 50 and
characterized the fancy prices as a
wind boom. The Standard advanced
the price of refined today one cent.
This makes an advance of 5 cents
since last SATURDAY.
j. H. Duffy predicted that the mar.
ket tomorrow would recover all if
mad lost, saying it had fallen be.
cause lot of people got scared. IT
Is believed here that if the Standard
retains its present price of $3.50 to-
morrow oil will go to SO by 4 o'clock
and should the Standard reduce the
price for cash oil to 50 the specuIa-
tive price will range between s225
and $2.40. Two men, holding & OOo
barrels of oil, announced on the ex.
change during the panic that thew
Were going to hold it until it was
worth IS a barrel.