The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-03-13
BOTH LISTS SUFFER
Stocks and Bonds Show Un-
varied Depression.
INVESTORS ARE SELLING
Spanish Fours Show the
Awful Fix of Spain.

New York, March 12.-The professional
traders were somewhat astonished at the
effect they achieved in prices today. The
bears, who attacked the market at the
opening, had buying orders at the prices
to which they desired to drive stocks.
The market showed itself 50 weak when
these prices were reached that the buying
orders were quickly drawn. This cover
ing movement accounted for the sharp
rally In the first hour, and there were some
recoveries at the close. Otherwise there
was nothing to relieve the UNMARRIED de-
preston which prevailed through the
wohle list Of stocks and bonds. The
closely held standard stocks suffered with
hte purely speculative issues, and in some
cases more severely. Lake Shore is an
example. 1t sold at 1S5 per cent, a de-
cline of points, and closed with the
bidding at only $50 per cent. Pennsyl-
vania dropped full points. st. Paul suf-
fered very acutely, probably on the I'M
covering on margins on recent speculative
buying and was at one time AS points.
Northwestern dropped Az points and Bur-
Hngton points. The local traction stocks
were equally weak. The number of prom
inent stocks which SOw net losses of be-
tween and 8 points is very large. The
total sales in the two hours trading, 323,
300 was well up to the average Of full
DAYS business for the week, exclusive Of
Monday and blocks of several thousand
shares we're frequently recorded. Part
of these offerings were speculative hold
ings dislodged by exhausted margins, but
there can be no doubt that sales of invest
ment holdings, such as are not usually
influenced at all by the speculative move
g hArrir inc m nj. Gnrh
an increasing proportion of the business
on the stock exchange. There were no
specific item of the days news that can
be pointed to as accounting for the demon
alization Of the market. 1t was caused
rather by the general conviction that the
reports of the Maine board Of Inquiry and
a statement of the further policy Of the
government towards Cuba are imminent,
and the willingness of operators to carry
open contracts over Sunday. The weekly
bank statement shows that the gold i'm
ports received for the week have not
been sufficient to Offset the continued
Withdrawals to the interior, so that the
cash holdings show a net decrease Of
1916, 700. But as the heavy drawing down
of deposits has reduced the % per cent
requirements by $2,634,625, the surplus re-
serve is enlarged by S1,S97, SIS.
THE WEEK REVIEWED.
The stock market ended the week as 1t
began, in a demorallzed condition. The
partial recovery of Tuesday and Wednes-
day, and the diminished activity between
Monday and Saturday probably represent
cd nothing but a natural reaction, which
always follows a sudden decline, the re-
covery being in proportion to the violence
of the fall. The New York stock exchange
on Monday shared the depression existing
on every exchange for securities in the
world. On the London and European ex-
changes the new demands of Russia up
on China and the tension between France
and Great Britain over the West African
situation were almost as much causes for
alarm as for the relations between the
United States and Spain. So acute was
the resulting depression that so important
an incident as the supreme court decision
in the maximum freight rate case in favor
of the railroads was almost entirely dis
regarded, although it has been eagerly
looked for each Monday since last year.
SPANS disavowal of any intention to de-
mand Lees recall, the satisfactory ad-
justment of the difficulty over sending
provisions to Cuba in warships and the
voting by congress of $50 900 defense
fund were all cited as evidence Of improv-
ed conditions in our relations with Spain.
But that none of these had any deep
seated effect was shown by the course
Of prices later in the week
The course of the exchange market and
the continued influx Of gold must be ac-
cepted also as additional evidence of prep
aration for emergencies. Last week the
heavy demand for money from the in
terror due to the desire of interior insti-