The evening times., 1899-02-04
ROCKEFELLER's LOSSES.
Yesterdays Standard OIL slump Cost
uim over $S.0OO,GOO.

tt!U tA St S~.DCosOSo.
New York Feb. 4-There were lively
times in Wall Street yesterday, and many
traders. who thought they saw a serious
reaction coming took fright and threw
their holdings unceremoniousIy whsn they
/ saw some OF the active issues side OF
/ tqo or three points shortly after noon.
In the general scramble many stop
loss" orders were caught greatly adding
to the excitement on Ch-nge, and in
/ cidentaHy 10 the commissions Of the brok-
/ crs. who are happiest when prices jump
/ rapidly this way and then that.
/ During the two morning hours there was
/ a heavy shriuEage in tae values Of the nu-
/ iaerou5 securities traded in, but this per
/ Icruance vas cast in the shade BY t1e
fireworks" that were going on in tAe
! Standard Oil iiquidating certificates on the
curb.
These certificates opened thirteen points
! down. at S4t5, uHiucldiy Tor those who are
! dependent for their daily bread upon-their
revenue from this stock and they Contin-
/ uef 10 melt away in value five or ten
/ points 81 a clip until they were offered at
Ssl2 a share with apparently 10 takers.
Two days ago they sold at Si1e.
Here was a shrnkage in value over
! night Of forty-sN points in the S93, ,0G0, 600
! Of stock outstanding, or 4 loss in market
! value CT S42, 0U0 CGG in q couple OF hours.
John d. Rockefeller, who is credited by
scme with owning nearly half Of The liquI-
/ dating certificates, was not there in per
son trying 10 dispose Of his holdings and
none Of the brokers present gave up his
principals, so it could not be definitely
/ learned whether Mr.. Rockefeller was sac
riTcinS his holdings
/ II he had sold all that he had az $4l2 a
! share mis- loss. from a market value stand
point, compared with the value Of the
I previous Gay. would have been, on the
/ basis OF his reported holdings, about sell
/ 10000, which added to the loss of So
eco 600 the day before. would have made a
/ total sacrifice OF S27,I08.000 in two days.
This is probably a greater loss than was
/ ever suffered by single person in this
country in like period OF time.
Shortly after the Offering at $4l2 share
somebody decided that he would buy
limited amount. and the price was raised
TO $4l5, at which figure sale was made.
Then the price recovered gradually to
! S42o, then to $780, and finally closed al
/ Si39 snare making a net loss OF nine
teen points for the dag.
! On this basis Mr.. Rockefeller made up
about SI2.G00,G0o Of his losses. and was
( only $S,I0o,600 poorer than he was the day
/ before, or 4lh7go,000 shFinkage for two
/ days.
! The slump in Standard Oil certificates
! was primarily due 10 the disappointment
/ over the size of the extra dividend which
was declared the day before. II was only
I > per cent. and many had expected at Ieasr
! >. As a matter of fact, Standard Oil shares
have gone UP a hundred points within a
! few months, adding nearly $l00 Geo 900 to
/ their market value. and it is not a long
! time since they were selling below 5000 a
! share. Mr.. Rockefeller has therefore not
sustained any real losses if his holdings
are the same as they were several years
/ ago
| The time was ripe for a reaction and it
{ is believed that the opportunity was taken
to shake out the weakly margined ac-
| counts in Standard Oil in the same way as
was done in the general market. Man
! haitian. Brooklyn Transit and the grang-
! ers led the decline on the stock exchange
and the bears were credited with helping
! along the decline.
| 3 There were no news to account for the
lower prices, except that some OF the adj
vices from Washington expressed doubt
about the passage of the Treaty next Mon
day. Later, however, when prices were
jumping upward rumor mongers quoted
! senator Foraker as saying that the friends
OF the Treaty were sure of more than
enough votes TO ratify it, and the shorts
covered their contracts at lively rate
AT the lower level there is said to have
| been good buying for Washington account.
The recovery began in Metropolitan Street
Railway and New York Central. The for
mer advanced abruptly from 215 "a to
226 Ia. the highest on record, accom-
panied by reports that the company had
acquired the Third Avenue Railroad svs
TEN, thus giving it control of all the sur
face lines on Manhattan Island
N-aE m prlf fhp,.i
story during business hours, and Metropoli-
tan stock closed at practically the top. a
net gain of more than points for the
day.
New York Central and PENNSYLVANIA
stock advanced more than points. closing
within fraction of the top, and all of the
grangers, as we'll as several of the other
leaders, closed with net gains The back
ward features were Manhattan Peoples
Gas, and Brooklyn Transit, which made up
only part of their losses. Total sales
were about $3.50 shares Trading in
bonds was comparatively quiet early prices
being easier, but the closing being firm. in
sympathy with stocks.
Officials of the Third Avenue PaiIroad
declared after the exchange closed that
there was no truth in the report that
their company had been absorbed by the
Metropolitan, and they said no such deal
was in contemplation.