The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-06-11
GOSSIP or WALL STREET.
The London Stock Exchange is keeping a
triple holiday.

In the last hour OF Fridays trading the
e'ock markets began to 20 against the short
interest. and It continued lrresistibly In that
direction yesterday, gathering impetus az
II advanced. transactions In the first hour
were five times as large as those recorded in
the first hour on Friday and then. after a
period OF hesitation. the bull element got ite
second wind and made another attack upon
the bear position which was moro successful
than the first and left prices 1 to 3 points
higher than Fridays closing, Professional
operators who had been waiting only for some
encouragement to go In and bid UP prices
sgsressively on the short interest found their
incentive In the Equitable settlement and
made that the basis for q formida bio demon
stratlon. Commission houses. however. were
unable to report an increase Of business cor
responding to the tremendous professio nal
activity everywhere apparent In the market
and insisted accordingly that the buying
induced BY the advances came very largely
from the short interest. which was probably
true.
1t is only when the public Is already In the
market that an immediate outside response
is made to such influences as those upon which
the professional bull element acted yesterday.
notably the influence OF the Eauitables dis
ENHANCEMENT. It may come later 1t is
noteworthy that q number OF influential
In an unfriendly attitude toward the market
because Of the effect that they conceived the
Equitable affair to Do producing upon outside
sentiment are now willing to adopt a more
encouraging tone with their followers. The
wire houses. especially those reaching the
West. being in position at once to put their
views before . large body Of spectators.
bought stocks freely for outside account on
yesterdays advances.
The extent to which the public will re-
spond TO the present Equitable arrange
ment. Is still question, however. In the minds
OF conservative Wall Street persons. On
Friday. before the purchase Of the Hyde stock
by tho Ryan syndicate was announced. a
prominent Wall Street man who had been
following the situation very closely said:
4 think the outcome will be demand that
the investments OF life insurance companies
be put on the same basis those Of savings
banks. That would remove the insurance
companies as factors in the financial opera
tons Of Wall Street. As to the effect this
thing is having upon public opinion. men
have said TO me that no settlement could
Offset 1t at once. that it Is something that
will have to wear of. but cannot agree
with them entirely. Wall Street men brought
the unfortunate conditions about and some
OF them will have to feel tho weight Of public
dlsapproval and suspicion. but it is also Wall
Street men who will have to settle the situa-
ton. and II they do their work well they will
get all the credit to which they are entitled.
Tho proportions Of the short interest sur
viving in dull market at the elimination OF
q downward swing In prices cannot be aceu-
rately asoertained. owing to the means that are
taken TO conceal it. but it may always be taken
for granted that after sentiment has been
against the market for long time cessation
OF the liquidation leaves stocks in an over
sold condition. The short interest now e1-
lsting in the market Is believed by competent
judges to be much overextended. They
base this opinion partly upon the character
OF some recent heavy selling. partly upon the
fact that the balance OF professional senti-
ment for number Of weeks has been heavily
against the market and partly because the
trading in the last few days has not been
sufficiently broad to permit OF extensive
covering of short stocks without detection.
1t will be remembered that the Boston selling
alone on Tuesday and Wednesday OF last
week " a. estimated at lO0. 900 shares. and by
some Boston persons as high a. $50. 900 shares
The market absorbed the short selling that
was done In the first half Of the week without
yielding any to speak Of. and proceeded then
to fatten out. It was altogether too narrow
on Thursday and Friday to permit Of extern
sive covering operations. There was un-
doubtedly some hasty covering in yesterdays
short session. but bear crowd la not whipped
In two hours. In Amalgamated Copper.
for example. large proportion OF the selling
from around 81 down to ~, must have been
for the short account because there was no
extended bull account to be lauidated. and
since the stock sold at 77>i It's market has been
comparatively narrow. The same crowd
that sold Amalgamated Copper so heavily
after the publication OF the company's report
also sold Union Pacific aggressively. and
there is no evidence of its having covered its
line In either stock.
Tho Steel stocks recovered yesterday with
some of their old time vlgor. There was an
apparent Improvement last week In their
market position.
Toward the end Of tho week the market
position OF Amalgsmated Copper became
subject Of thoughtful consideration. There
are many who now believe that the selling
on the decline OF points folio Ing the appear
ance Of the com panys report must have
been greatly overdone, 1t has been shown
that there was comparatively little OF the
stock in commission houses around the Street
when the report came out There Is less
now than there was then, message was
sent from Wall Street to Boston on Friday
saying: "A leading house here that has been
persistently BULLS h for six weeks on Amalga-
mated Is to-day long Of 1900 shares. The
head Of this house says that 1t seems i'm
possible to interest any one in the market.
The expe rience Of this house has been general.
There has been no speculative distribution
recently Of Amalgamated Copper, and mean
y lille certain brokers have been standing
under the market taking the stock lnces-
sanity. With the commission houses carrying
10 little Of 1t and with tho principal holdings
20 highly concentrated as they must be,
hose who are responsible for the stocks
could. 1t Is thought. make matters
extremely disagreesble for the short interest
Good traders believe. at any rate. that Il Is
dangerous thing to be short Of They
inspect. moreover that lot OF short selling
las been encouraged.
A man who knows . good deal about the |
Erie Railroad property was recently In
Wall Street office and overheard q trader
loing som ethins In Erie stock. He hap
,ened to know the trader and asked him
what he was doing. Il was out Of town
last night" the trader said. and l couldn't
sleep where i was on account Of the noise
II the Erie's freight trains. and now that
know what . business the road Is doing
won't be able to sleep until l cover the
900 shares that I'm short Of" You must
AVE been at Goshen2" said tho Erie man,
Now. how did you know
.haty" the trader asked. Well. said the