The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-05-09
Et1ranctal.
1RA sIO CA MARKET.
The Novel Spectacle ofa Bull and Bear
 Panic Side by Side.

1 of a bear panic and a bull panic ir progress side by side. The bear panic | in Northern Pacific was the impellne cause of the jdemoralized rush to sell other stocks which was held in check for a time after the astounding opening in Northern Pacific, but which gained
 almost panic force in the late trading.
 Prices were not toppled over as direct
 result of calling of loans and forced li-
 quidation, such as often culminates a period of er-speculation, although
 there was a very general broadening of
 margins and added severity in the scru-
 tiny of collateral. inevitable under the
 uneasy conditions prevailing. But it
 was generally evident that the holders
 of long stock were tenaciously waiting
 to be actually forced out. The punsh-
 ment which was being inflicted on the
 shorts in Northern Pacific was so dis
 tressing as to keep the bears in a timid
 frame of mind and they hesitated to
 attack the market. The support which
 came in on the opening dip helped to
 encourage the bulls and intimidate the
 bears. But the liquidation seemed so
 large that the bears took courage and attacked the market after after mid- day and secured rich returns. As the recession in prices reached the 10 point line the decline gathered force, showing the dislodgment of large lines of long stock by the wiping out of margins. The chaotic condition into which the market was thrown became alarming in the af- ternoon, but determined support devel- oped and the resultant rallies which reached as much as joints in one or two instances checked to some extent the disorderly drop in prices. The ap- parently unlimited buying orders which appeared in United States Steel pre- ferred when the decline had reached 12 points and the resulting rally of 1-2 points gave some of the bull spectators the courage to claim that the days re- action was really engineered by the financial interests which have been behind the bull market through out, with desire to shake off weak followers and that it was not out of to the unprecedented ad- vances which had preceded 1t and to the prodigious dimensions of the present market. This view, however, did not obtain general countenance. Anyone seeking to explain to-day's movement will have to go back over a period of many weeks and for every suggestion of 3 great financial combination or con- solidation he will have to suppose a 1eep seated doubt or apprehension ng in Northern Pacific. It caused aroused by the d'sclcses of this morn shock to learn that the countries great financial forces which were supposed to be earnestly working to secure com of interests in the whole rail- 'oad world, were in fact arrayed against zach other. The Burlington deal, on which such far-reachlng conclusions nave been based by the speculators was teen to be in jeopardy It was learned hat the level to which prices had at- aimed had induced inciders. presuma- ,ly best posted on the value of their properties, to sell sufficient holdings to | ndanger their control. This explana- | ion of the competitive buying which | las induced some of the recent sensa- ional advances threw doubt upon the whole series of rumors of plans for | reat consultations and trans -continen- al combinations amongst the railroads. n other words the broad intimation vas carried by the disclosures growing | ut of the Northern Pacific develop nent that the recent great buying of tocks was for the most part wholly peculative, and without the supposed asis of investment purposes. Add to his the growing constriction of the honey snpply, continued unsuitable de- hands from the stock speculation, in pads upon the narrow bank surplus by 1e taking up of the revenue surplus of
 c he government, a further shipment of old to Europe to-day and growing un- asness among money lenders as to the ability of values of the securities
 hich they hold as collateral and the efficacy of the position is easily seen.
 is not surprising therefore that the 1oclz of the Northern Pacific episode ,ming upon this situation toppled rices oyer Northern Pacific's sky ,cket course this morning to 1S0 com- { ared with 143 1-2 at last nights close $ nd 132 for the London parity this , orning is almost unprecedented for , lort time movements in the local mar st. This stock was up to that figure Id back to the opening figure of l55 | ithin three minutes. It went as low I 145 afterwards and as high again as 0, closing 16O The close corner into hich the shorts were crowded of | ,urse explained this movement ,,,o,oc+ +,a cavarest sufferers in the ,