The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-08-20
BACKSET
IN STOCKS
Bears Made a Turn on Wall
Streets Deals.
REBOUND WAS TOO FAST
Speculative Public Was Left
to Guess.

New York. Aug 1s-The reactionary
forces developed in yesterdays late stock
market became preponderant in today
market and caused a sharp backset in
prices. 1t was evident that the underiy-
ing cause of the reaction was that the
rebound had been fast. So far as per-
ceived, the outside causes which were
advanced to account for the decline were
the effect rather than the cause of il.
The dominant influences IN prices were
in the market itself. Yesterdays profit
taking left the market in weaker tech
nicaI position. The concerted selling all
through the list caused the belief that
large bear party had been organized
among the professional traders to con-
test the advance. In some quarters it
was suspected that the choice OF well
recognized bear operators to conduct the
selling was a ruse TO cover profit taking
sales Of those long stocks. as the appear
ance OF bear selling is the most likely TO
invite support Of stocks by their market
managers. The kind of support and pro-
lection for prices which have been in
evidence since the trend definitely turned
upward was not seen today. and the fail
in prices was uncontested. The speculat-
i've public at large was left 10 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 they
had become dissatisfied with the rapidity
of the advance and the character of their
following and had determined to coun-
tenance a reaction for the purpose or
shaking off a weak and undesirable fol-
lowing. The reaction did in fact uncover
large numbers of stop loss orders and
wiped out narrow margins OF smaller
SPECTATORS who have been attracted by
the rapid rebound. London was a seller
of stocks on a large scale evidently in
the nature of profit taking. That there
were large additions to the short interest
as a consequence Of the days selling is
a fair conjecture. AS for the news devel-
opments that were an influence, an i'm
portant placem ust be given to the ques-
ton raised whether the rejection of the
Panama canal treaty by the Colombian
senate is to be regarded as final. Yester-
days news Of the rejection was made
much OF by the bulls as relieving the ex-
change market of the need for supplying
means for remittance on the canal pay
ment and LAYING the treasury department
free to use measures of relief for the
money market Buyers on this factor
were nearly disappointed by todays re-
vised view of the canal treaty outlook.
Muchattention was devoted TO circum-
stantial report that the legislators who
are looked to to frame the legislation
have been unable to agree and that any
currency measure at this coming extra
session of the regular session of con-
gress is improbable. The selling was
much concentrated, a single commission
house disposing of many thousand shares
during the day. The personality OF the
firm and it's past employment by one Of
the great financial groups caused consid-
cradle significance to be attached TO this
selling. The further reduction in prices
of southern pig iron had its greatest
effect on Tennessee Coal, but the iron and
steel stocks all shared in the days weak
ness. The concentrated selling referred
to largely converged on Amalgamated
Copper and Rock Island was leader in
the ereaction. The low temperatures in
the corn belt and the necessity of early
warm weather TO insure the crop from
frost were considerably dwelt upon.
There was a considerable covering move
ment at the beginning of the last hour.
but the bears made a fresh onslaught
and forced weak closing at the lowest
OF the day. Declines in the active list
ran from l TO 4 points
Some early strength in the bond market
gave way to heaviness in sympathy with
stocks. Total sales, par value. $500"
United States bonds were unchanged on
call
Closing limitations were as follows: