The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-12-25
THE MARKETS.
Wall Street Review.


New York, Dec. s3.-The first transac-
tlons on the Stock exchange today dis
closed how much of yesterdays weakness
must be attributed 20 selling for short ac-
count The rush to cover short con-
tracts carried prices up without regard to
fractions in the specialties which had
been the mark of attack yesterday.
Sugar, Metropolitan, Tobacco, Brooklyn
Transit and Peoples Gas jumped from
3ia to points on sales. The same buoy
ant tendency was shown in the interna-
tionally listed railroad stocks. London
had lifted these shares steady before the
opening hour but they bounded above the
London parity to a level from to points
above last nights close here. The urg-
ency of the demand from the bears con-
stituted a miniature panic. Their short
selling yesterday was based on an as
sumption that the periodical settlement
in the mines department Of London Stock
exchange which began today would dis
close so weak a position there that
panic would be likely to result. on the
contrary, the earliest news from London
showed that the settlement in London
was proceeding easily and in an orderly
manner sentiment there being much eli-
couraged by the shipments of gold from
New York. Rumors of financial entan-
prominent figure in the financial world all
day yesterday. Today, on the contrary,
it was affirmed that the $4,000, 900 in gov
ernment bonds had been placed as addi-
tional security for the loans of this man
of wealth and that his difficulties were
ended The professional traders accepted
the one rumor with the same credence as
they had the other and put in a lively
two hours trying to buy stocks to save
themselves loss. interpretations of the
bank statement were decidedly confused
and the market ran off on realizing. 1t
did not get back to the top but hardened
again materially and closed strong The
cash increase shown by the statement of
81, 49,, 500 came as a surprise, in view of
the gold shipments and the drain to Bos-
ton 1t is an evidence of the hidden re-
sources brought out in such a crisis as
that of the past week. The item of loans
can hardly be an accurate reflection OF
the net result of the drastic contraction
OF the week. The smallness of the de-
crease, $3O9i,OOO, must be due to the av,
erage system of computations. Total
sales, 35i, 200 shares.
What happened in Wall street this
week had been a long time brewing. ANY
one of half n dozen or more causes might
| be cited, but many of them or all OF them
| combined were more properly but the
| elimination of a long series of causes
! which pTeClplldlCu lne event. Inc "HOiS
may be summed up in the term over
! speculation Amongst professional spec
uators there is a process eXpressively
| termed 'pyramidrg." Money is bor-
rowed with which to buy on margin.
| When the price of the purchase rises the
| advance is reckoned as profit and is IN
vested in more purchases The profits
| thus reinvested help to advance the price
and the paper profits thus mount up to
| enormous proportions. But the demand
which has thus advanced prices is a pure
| ly fictitious one. The pyramid thus cre-
| ated is an inverted one, and II topples
| over when an attempt is made to sell 10
| realize. The capitalists do not call their
operations 'pyramidirg" but the per-
sistent imitation In values of securities
| which went on for months had much the
| same effect. 1t has been long evident
that any large selling to realize would
depress the market and some very
wealthy combinations have persistently
| held their stocks and ignored the symp-
| toms of coming strinGency in the money
market with an obstinate optimism re-
garding the replenishment of the money
| supply which results have not justified
| Capitalists and bankers who had under
written the securities of many of the new
Industrial fluctuations found the market
taken from them and prices of the securi'
ties dropping below the underwriting
price. With this burden some load to pro-
tcct the growing stringency of money
threw an avalanche of all classes of Sc
| tuIllltS OH lile Ildlhtl " Obtdlll llttNNN
funds. 1t was such a realizing movement
on a large scale that 1t had long beer
sought to aN old as the market was in nc
condition to stand it. But once started
and the bears fully understanding the
weakness Of the conditions and offer
ing prices down with reckless boldness
the fabric began to crumble and seemed
tottering toward ruin on Monday wheI
the associated banks of New York by con
CcTted action offered $lOOOO,O0O in loan
broke
jumped to half per cent a day equiva
| lent to lS6 per cent, per annum, in thu
frantic bidding of the hard pressed hold
ers. With the easing of the money rat'
the panic was checked and the price re
duced to some sort of order The mar
| ket however, continued feVeriSh al
through the week under constant liquida
tion, which brought prices in many i'm
portant stocks lower than the low price
of Monday.
The following quotations are Furnished
The Tribune by NJ. s. Jordan & Co