New-York tribune., 1903-06-14
Financial.
The Financial World.

closing prices yesterday Win thOSs "a ths 'e1A
before the impression he would receive would
he that there had been an upward movement
of nrices Of quite satisfactory character. Yes
ter,,av's closing Quotations on nearly every i'm
portan* stock were higher than those OF tbs
previous Saturday. the Improvement ranging
from fractions between three and four poines
This will give some idea OF the rebound which
followed the big drop OF Tuesday afternoon and
"Wednesday.
II was the way the market acted on Tuesday
v,,hicn presaged trouble for the next day. Up
TO about two O'Clock the list had shown a quiet
advance: at the advance IL was steady and al
together had a favorable look Then suddenly
there came an OUtpour Of r. & o. and St Paul.
under which the former broke rapidly ST. Paul
showed more resisting power. but it also gave
way ga a heavy attack was simultaneously
made on Pennsylvania Missouri Pacific. and
Union Pacffc All broke more or less and the
market came to such a demoralized close that
the general question was what the morrow
would bring forth. Always there vas the
haunting dread Of failures
Everybody seemed to feel that Wednesday
was to be the decisive day If the day passed
without disaster the turn had come The open
ing was not auspicious. for London prices came
well below our close and this market opened
well below the London level The worst had
passed by one O'Clock. but it was rather trying
time while it lasted But there were no
failures The nsarket came TO an irTegU-
lar close with a few stocks still at the low
est Of the day: yet it was noticed that In
the last hour several Of the leading stocks. some
which had been most heavily pounded previous
w. stood at an almost even figure Quite evi-
IDENTIFY there was some one holding a bag 70
catch everything that dropped This was one
sign of the, turn; the other that the days
trading had sweHed to a million and half
shares
There was no mistaking the latter sign; and
the next morning. when London prices came az
high above our close or higher, than they had
been below il the previous morning, it
plain that the reaction had started Since then
the market has been going up continuously,
save that yesterday there some recession
on profit taking little before the close. Even
with that all the losses Of the first part OF tn
week have been made Up. and substantial gains
made in addition
Using a military metaphor. one may say that
the final assault on the market position pre-
ceded bs an apparent retreat, viz. the bidding
up of prices Tuesday morning. Then came
the sudden attack, the points selected being the
stocks above named. and IL abundantly sue
cessful In view of the rapid advance since. il
may be asked whether those who drove the mar
ket furioU5Iy have been successful in getting
away with the spoiIs-in other words. were they
able to cover their shorts proftably? It looks
made so low on Wednesday morning. in prepara-
ton for the last assault. and the next morning
put so high when the up turn was to come, Ger
tainy suggests the idea that the same hand did
both. If this be true. it may be inferred that
the bear leaders had not only been able 70 cover,
but had also picked up enough Iorg stock at the
bottom to place them the bull side
1t is rather notable that the condition OF
things in the London market must be very near
Iy what it is here. for in Fridays cables the
following significant comment appeared: Opera
tors on the Stock Exchange were cheerful
which was mainly attributable to the absence
OF important failures" This referred not 70
ours. but TO their market; and it tells in a
word the story of continuous fall in prices
that the dread becomes acute Of any sudden
shock being followed by corporations firms
going under. a dread of this. hanging over
Wall Street, powerfully contributed to produce
the collapse of Wednesday. That fright has
now passed.
ParentheticaIly, one may remark that the
rnucr-con1mented-On cable interview with Lord
Rorhschfld was welcome in far as it may
have helped to restore confidence; but in itself
il positively silly One doubted whether the
thing could be genuine Inquiry in quarters
likely to be we'll informed brought decided
expression of opiniCl that IL was. 1t also evoked
concurrence in the opinion OF the house OF
ROthSchIld which the i1te ADDISON CaIHuldCh "a
pressed when it came out that this house was
heavily involved in the famous Secretan copper
corner. This shows said he, that the money
and the prestige are there, but the brains have
gone"
That the London market has kept parallel lines
with our own on the downward route. until at
last the uppermost dread became one OF fail
ures is sufficient proof-if any were needed
that the causes of declining prices, or shrinking
speculation are not local We have 70 look be-
yond our own borders for all the causes They,
in a sense. are world wide Operators here VINO
have successfully worked the market on the
short side are simply the who were shrewd
enough to see the real situation and take ad-
vantage of it, Exactly who they were, Wall
Street is still in something of a fog; because the
one or two operators who have been most openly
active on the bear side are not of such weight
as to crush this market it has been crushed
The idea is growing that the start of the bear
campaign came with a wholesale unloading OF
stock by the Standard Oil magnates; and that
smaller operators came in actively they dis
covered how the market getting surfeited
with the stock from the big boxes OF these men.
1t is certain that the long decline which cul-
minated last Wednesday was started by the con-
tinuous selling of ST. Paul. and next to il. 0t
Atchison. The selling of ST Paul started in vol
urle when it was still well up in the COS; and
when 1t had already come out in quantity suffi-
cient TO seriously disturb the market one promi-
nent house openly threw over an unusually
large block of it. This was the blow needed
and from that time (about a month ago. there
was only one way for the market TO go Every
int Lead of =