The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-12-09
A SHARP DECLINE.
Prices Fall Briskly
Under Lead of
Industrials.
BOSTON SPECIALTIES HEAVY.
Big Drop in Steel and Wire
General News and
Notes.
BOSTON SPECIALTIES HEAVY.

There is an unpleasant notion around
thai. the difficulty in borrowing money
on some Of the Boston mining stocks
may lead to refusal of brokers to carry
the same on margin.
While it cannot be discovered that
there is any general idea among bro
kers of requesting customers to take
up st6eks carried for them, it is fact
that this kind of talk is heard, the
intimation being given that continued
hardening of the loan market may
make it necessary materially to dimin-
ish customers margin accounts.
On all sides, it seems to be admitted
that today's New York bank statement
will be unfavorable; funds seem to have
gone into the interior again instead of
coming. east, and with the continued
evidences of monetary stringency
abroad, the basis for a good bear move
mentais provided. Prices ran off all
around in Wall street yesterday, under
leadr.of the industrials, losses of 2@3
points being common. Federal Steel
came down 31a, Sugar 35s, Brooklyn
Transit 15k. Tennessee Coal and Iron
ga, Steel and Wire 4, Jersey Central
212 Continental Tobacco 21a, Rubber
214..tC., B. & Q. 2. Boston specialties
We're heavy generally, with little mark
ed feature. United States Oil fell IL,
to 37R, and mining shares, as a rule,
yielded when offered. The market
was narrow and dull
There is rumor of intention on the
part of the stock exchange to enforce
the rules against trading in stocks
other than those regularly listed or adj
mitted to the unlisted department-the
so-called curb shares. Some six or
eight of these have been dealt in on
the floor of the exchange-not openly,
but quietly-and now that the boom"
is over and the market is narrow, it
is proposed to prevent this by fines and
to enforce the rules; also, it is said,
to use more care and, discrimination
henceforth in admitting securities to
quotation on the pink or unlisted sheet.
These various rumors have caused some
unea siness; the one first alluded to
above, relating to stocks on margin,
brought forth some predictions of semi
panic, certainly of fairly violent liqui-
dation for time, but it is no more
than rumor yet, and the time is not
ripe for a scare. Under. existing cir
cumstances, a little putting in order
of the speculative house is advisable
After the January settlements, mat
tiers ought to get into good shape once
more. Meanwhile, firm money and the
fear of adverse trust legislation make
against prices in the Wall street mar
ketaas well as here, and Mr. Keene is
saideby gossip to be one of a combina-
ton engaged in depressing prices to
make as much as possible out of the
antitrust scare and the monetary pos
sibilities. A factor that hardly was
noticed today--certainly it had no
influence-was the increase in the Chi
cago and Northwestern dividend from
to a per cent annual basis
The New York stock market opened
heavy; Atchison preferred 65, c.. B. &
@. 1872, Continental Tobacco 37%, Fed
eraI Steel 59A, Leather 1874, Manhat-
tan 1898, New York Central 1891
Brooklyn Transit S21a, Northern Pacific
Sc. Peoples Gas 110%, Rock Island 1121b,
Sugar 152, st. Paul 1235s, Southern pre-
ferred 5T54, Tobacco 11034, Union Pa
cific SOS. Union Pacific preferred 76%.
Yesterdays late rallying tendency in
stocks gave way to renewed depression
at the opening today, losses in some of
the industrials approaching a point.
The Western railroad stooke Lad Az