The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1903-08-20
REAcTIoNARY FORCES
DOMINATE WALL STREET.
LONGS TAKE PROFITS UNDER
COVER OF BEAR BROKERS.
Character Of Support Accorded on
Declines Much Changed From
That of Last Week.

New York. Aug 1a.-The reactionary forces
developed in yesterdays late stock market
became preponderant in> to-day's market
and caused sharp backset in price. 1t
was evident that the underlying cause Of
the reaction was that the rebound had been
too fast and had gone too far. So far as
could be perceived. the outside causes which
were advanced to account for the decline
were the effect rather than the cause Of 1t.
The dominant influences on the market
We're in the market itself. Yesterdays
heavy profit taking left the market in a
weaker technical position. The concerted
selling all through the list caused the be-
lief that large bear party had been or
ganized among the professional traders to
contest the advance. In some quarters it
was suspected that the choice of well recog-
nized bear operators to conduct the SELL
of those long of stocks, as the appearance
OF bear selling Is the most likely to invite
support of stocks by their market mana
gers.
DIFFERENT SUPPORT
The kind Of support and protection for
prices which have been in evidence since tho
trend definitely turned upwards was not
seen to-day and the fall in prices was un-
contested The speculative public at large
was left to conjecture whether the powerful
capitalists. whose leadership they have
supposed they were following had sold out
their stocks and retired from the market
or whether the had become dissatisfied
character of their following and had de-
termined to countenance a reaction for
the purpose of shaking off a weak and I'M
desirable following OF weak traders. The
reaction did. in fact, uncover large numbers
of stop loss orders and wiped out narrow
margins of smaller SPECTATORS who have
don was seller of stocks on large scale.
evidently in the nature Of profit-taking.
That there were large additions to the
short interest as consequence of the days
selling. Is a fair conjecture. As for the
news developments that were an influence
an important place must be given to the
question raised whether. the rejection of
the Panama Canal treaty by the Colombian
Senate Is to be regarded as final.
Yesterdays news Of the rejection was
made much of by the bulls. as relieving the
means for remittance on the canal payment
and leaving the Treasury Department free
TO use measure OF relief for the money mar
disappointed by to-day's revised view of the
canal-treaty outlook.
CANAL LEGISLATION.
Much attention was devoted to circum-
stantial report that the legislative leaders
who are looked to to frame canal legisla-
ton, have been unable to agree. and that
any currency reform measure at the coming
extra session or regular session of Con-
gress Is improbable. The selling was much
concentrated, single commission-house dis
posing OF many thousand shares during the
day. The personality of the firm and its
past employment by one of the great finan-
cial groups caused considerable significance
to be attached to this selling. Further re-
duction in prices of Southern pig iron had
its greatest effect on Tennessee Coal, but
the iron and steel stocks all shared in the
days weakness. The concentrated selling
referred to largely converged on Anal
gamated Copper. and Rock Island was
leader in the reaction. The low tempera-
lures in the corn belt and the necessity of
early warm weather to insure the crop from
frost We're considerably dwelt upon. There
was a considerable covering movement at
the beginning Of the last hour, but the
bears made fresh onslaught and forced a
weak closing at the lowest Of the day. De-
clines in the active list ran from / to
points.
Some early strength in the bond market
gave way to heaviness In sympathy with
stocks Total sales, par value, $1952 OOO
United States bonds were unchanged on
call.