The sun., 1904-08-21
eossrp or wALL s7xEEr.


| last hour Of Fridays session continued In tne
short session yesterday until checked In the
/ last few minutes Of trading BY professional
profit taking on tho short side Of the market.
| This covering OF short contracts merely
| arrested the reaction In prices. Inc nha.
| quotations showed a nominal recovery oi
| but n to u per cent from the lowest.
! The market closed with an appearance OF
| greater weakness, many critical oniooXers
thought. than had been exhibited for some
! time The floating supply OF stocks hao
| evidently been somewhat increased py com.
} mission house selling. The first selling OF
| any consequence by the commission house
| element was seen on Friday, and " was .
= good deal In evidence on the further reactioh
1 yesterday. The heaviest selling yesterday:
! however, was evidently Of professional
| origin. Jacob Field was perhaps the most
promin ent individual figure on the Dear siue
| of the market He sold stocks heavily all
| around the room. addressing himself chiehy
to Steel preferred and Atchison. IL was
| estimated just before the close that mis- seiins
| OF Steel preferred alone had amounted 70 lo'UV
shares He sold one block Of 5000 Steel pre-
ferred at SsH, and also sold 1850 Atchison
| In one lot to Wormser. Macdonald was
| large buyer of Steel preferred on the decline
while Field was selling. The activity OF
Steel preferred was much greater than the
average for the week. transactions In TWO
hours trading amounting TO nearly as nuoh
as the total In flve hours trading on either
Thursday or Friday, and yesterdays activity
was at maximum decline OF N per cent
At any time In the last two months or
continuously during that time . trader
who had taken his cue on tho general market
from the two principal Hartman stocks.
Union Pacific and Southern Pacific. might
well have ignored everything else In tho
speculative situation. Their fluctuations have
reflected Enthusiastically tho attitude OF certain
powerful banking interests toward the market
Both Union Pacific and Southern Pacino
were heavy throughout, Fridays session,
developing rather pronounced weakness In
the last hour OF trading, and they were dis
tinctly weak again yesterday.
few OF the numerous stop loss orders
that are said to be under the market were
uncovered yesterday.
Union Pacific will sell ex dividend , per
cont. on Aug. 81. a week from Wednesday
The transfer books will close on that date
both for this dividend and for the annual
meeting. The meeting will be held on Oct.
IL. Tho subscription privilege on the now
Southern Pacific preferred stock will ex-
pire on Sept. /.
Commission business reached its maximum
development on Monday OF last week. and
In the forenoon Of that day a considerable
distribution OF stocks took place. good
many brokers thought at the time that the
commission house element was getting
stocks rather too easily. On yesterdays price
level the stocks bought for outside account
at tho beginning Of the week showed losses
to the holders OF about per cent, and at NO !
time during the week had there been profit
In them Of as much as n per cent. After
Mondays distribution the current OF specu-
lation turned to industrial speclaltles and
stocks OF minor importance. Some Of the
specialties In which there had been developed
an active bull interest declined even moro
sharply than the leading railroad stocks,
notably Metropolitan Securities and Ameri-
can Sugar. The general bull interest in the
stock market has increased more In the last
few months thnn some people imagine. Active
brokerage houses are borrowing anywhere
from double to four times the amount Of
money they were six months ago. which
means. Of course. that they are carrying
. proportiona:ely greater amount Of stocks
on margin. A large percentage Of this In
Grease. possibly as much as rs per cent. Of It,
has taken place In the last three months.
Many were surprised to find that In the
loan crowd yesterday there was. II any
change. decrease In the general borrowing
demand for Stocks as compared with Thurs
days demand. notwithstanding the growth
since Thursday OF bearish sentiment In
0p0CulAClV0 ClECleo. AIL6T q I06CblOu Oh !
or per cent. with sentiment inclining moro
to the bear side OF the market. the borrowing
demand for stocks Is generally increased.
The demand, even for Steel preferred. was
considerably lighter. brokers said. than II
had been. There was q particular demand
for Pennsylvania, and the Sugar borrowed
previously during the week was all renewed.
but the general demand did not reflect
any extension Of the short interest In the
market.
Tho selling OF Metropolitan Securities
yesterday looked rather impressive. espe-
oially to those who bought on higher level
at tho beginning Of the wook on assurances
that the prioe would cross par before Sstur-
day. Prominent a. sellers on yesterdays
decline of 2x per cent. wero Clark, Dodge
d Co.. Van Emburgh d Atterbury. u. B. Hop-
kins 4 Co.. j. NJ. Fiske Co. and q. Content
d Co. Brokers reported scattered nQuidA-
ton By tired speculative holders. An opera
tor who had been bulling the Metropolitan
issues was responsible for the story oirou-
lated about the middle Of the week, that oon-
troll of the Metropolitan Securities Company
had changed hands At liz. There u q good
deal OF curiosity to know the present position |
In Metropolitan Street Railway Of . prominent
house which had been openly bearish on the |
stock for months. selling It on advances |
and advising its followers to do Likewise. |
1t Is q house which has q considerable follow |
ing. and 1t 10 understood that lot Of money !
has been lost through Its advice on tho abort |;
side OF Metropolitan Street Railway. The !
general impression is that 1t u stlll abort OF |
the stock. and that 1t improves every oppor- |
tunity that arises to depress It's pricc.
Missouri Pacific has been An object re- |
Gently Of much criticism. The stock not !
only has been a conspicuous lag gard In risinr |
market. but prominent traders who have |
tried to bull It, on the reasoning that to be In |
line with other stocks 1t should be selling !
between los and ITO as . s per cent. divi- |
dend payer. complain that they have been |
freely supplied with the stock by a coterie |
OF insiders controlling the market for It.
These insiders apparently have not wanted |
to make a movement In 1t themselves and |
have sold tho stock to outside operators who. |