The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-03-28

FRIDAY, March n.

FRIDAY, March n.
While the initial force In to-day's very
weak security market was that sup
piled by the efforts Of operators at
work for lower prices. genuine liquida-
ton undoubtedly occurred In large vol
ume. Selling by commission houses OF
stocks held speculatively for the rise was.
in fact, a feature OF the trading and at
times this selling was, clearly enough, OF
an enforced nature. proceeding either from
the execution OF stop-loss orders or from
the exhaustion OF margins. Indeed, upon
a calm view Of the course Of the mar
ket for the last six weeks or since the culmi-
nation Of the upward movement in January
il is evident that sales of investment stocks
have been in progress upon far greater
scale than most people having interests in
the market have been aware OF or have
been willing to admit. II holdings OF this
sort had not come out. no mere attacks OF
bears. however daring and powerful could
have produced 40 great decline in prices
az has taken place or could have availed
to keep prices down, once the low figures
were reached. Very many times in the
period named it has looked as though the
decline had ended and the market was
about to rally. But each time the rally pc
tered OUT after brief period 1t was found
that no public buying appeared; and then
the same old feeling Of apathy and dis
coura cement required. II would seem to be
the duty of professional students Of market
conditions to attempt to discover whether
the causes Of this feeling may not be OF
more thorough and far-reaching character
than has hitherto been supposed.
Greater declines were recorded to-day
in the prices of stocks than at any time
for many weeks, and In the afternoon the
market became semi-demoralized. The
last prices were considerably above the
lowest. but after the close Of the market
the general pessimism in the Street seemed
to be little relieved and there were few
people who ventured to assert that bottom
prices had at last been seen 1t is matter
worth considering however, that one OF
the very best signs of a recovery In mar
ket prices at any time is when pessirnism
Of this kind becomes very dark and very
general. The two factors that seemed
to have most to do with to-day's collapse
were the extreme weakness and very OBJ
vious liquidation in the Pennsylvania and
New York Central railroad shares. The |
former declined at one time 2 Y and the latter
points from it's previous close, and both |
st ocks were sold by houses usually acting !
for so-called inside interests The argu-
ments used against the stocks by the bears |
were the familiar ones that they were selling |
At prices altogether too high, In view Of the |
present state OF the money market, and |
that in speculative sense regarding Penn |
sylvania stock particularly, the perma-
hence Of the per cent. dividend rate on the |
400 600 900 capitalization Of the company |
could not be said TO be assured. Other
very weak stocks were ST. Paul, Southern |
Pacific. Canadian Pacific and Atchison.
Ali the active stocks, in fact. suffered
greatly. The extremely large decrease
m net OF the Atchison's earnings for Feb
-uary reported yesterday was held to be
and the strike situation at
lowell and the large future expenditures
o be made by the New York, New Haven
md Hartford Railroad Company under
in increased wages for it's men
llso came In for adverse comment. Esti-
mates were that the banks have lost nearly
q 600 600 in cash during the week. q gain
II 81 .25O000 on the interior movement
,alf OF which. however, was In new gold
icing Offset by losses to the Sub-Treasury.
The opinion seemed to be general in
he financial community to-day that in so
ar as Secretary Shaw's plan was intended
o relieve the money stringency at this
,entre il would prove ineffective. 1t was
,ointed out that even IL the plan should
,e entirely successful it would only result
n the disbursement Of something less than
IS 900 900 from the Treasury vaults, while
bankers expressed Themselves as scep-
ical OF the increase in bank-note circula-
ion that 1t would cause. This increase, in
my event, would be extremely gradual.
The banks. Of course. prefer to use the
? per cent. bonds instead Of
my other national issues as a basis for
heir circulating notes: but the banks
iold very few Of the and per cent. bonds
hat have been called in, and would find
mail profit, IL is said. in buying them for
nor do the banks. in view Of
he legal restrictions imposed upon the re-
irement Of circulation. seem especially
lnxious 10 take out circulation. anyway,