The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1905-04-21
Gates WHEAT DEAL
GETS DEATH BLOW
He Shifts His Burden to Armour
and the Price DesCends
Five Cents

CHICAGO, April 2O.-The celebrated
deal in May wheat attributed to John
W. Gates received seemingly it's death
blow today. Possibly as much as
100000 bushels for May delivery was
dumped on the market. AS a result
there was a break of cents q busheI
in the price, the quotations. for May
falling from s1.131a to S1.Os15 Some
operators professed an opinion that
the slump was due to heavy eastern
holders of May wheat unloading be-
cause of notable unrest in the stock
market, the alleged purpose of the
sellers being to get free to protect Sc
curities in Wall street.
A much more prevalent belief, how
ever, was that Gates, tiring of the
burden. had shifted the May wheat
deal TO Armour and others. One thing
was said TO be certain-that Gates had
sold tremendous quantities today
through at least one house here. When
the price for May fell under $1.10 COM
mission people poured wheat out on
stop loss selling orders. This caused
a breath catching slide sheer to
S1.OS12. The total sales of May wheat
were estimated all the way from g.
100000 to 100000 bushels.
While the bear turn was on in May
the Armour people were supporting
July wheat against selling drives
caused by general rains. 1t was ar
gued that Armour's enormous buying
for July was for the Gates crowd,
either covering short sales from S1.01
down or possibly going long for the
Wall street dealers. At the close of
the session May jumped back to $1.10,
leaving the net decline for the day
3%c. July closed less than Ac off,
at S72s @S7hc.
Stocks Lag Severely
Special to The Globe
NEW YORK, April 20.-The most
pronounced reaction the stock market
has had this year occurred today.
Prices fell three to six points in lead
ing shares, with liquidation of very
forced character. Several factors were
responsible for the break. The signing
of the tax on stock transfers by Gov.
Higgins; the long holiday that New
York and London will both have, during
which many things might happen;
Lawson's panic predictions; the five
cent break in wheat; reports that the
Gates interests had lost their fight in
the cereal; the great number of weak
speculative accounts with which the
market was loaded, and the rise in
with bringing about the decline.
The weakness of Union Pacific, st.
Paul and New York Central hurt the
rest of the list. Union Pacific sold un-
der 127, with a loss of ten points from
last weeks highest. A large quantity
of 1t that had been borrowed for use
at a special meeting to vote on an issue
of 100,000,000 was returned to the
market. Pools in nearly all of the
active shares liquidated on a large scale
and commission houses offered a good
many stocks. The reaction in copper
was attributable to The reduction in the
price of refined metal and expectation
that the dividend this afternoon would
not be increased. This was justified by
the action of the directors in allowing
only l per cent rate.
On the whole the days dealings look
ed very much like an expansion of the
selling movement with which the week
began, which was attributable at the
bottom almost wholly to considerations
growing out of the distribution of Great
Northern and Northern Pacific assets.
Northern Pacific will be dealt in in the
unlisted department of the stock ex-
change next Monday and will probably
be listed a week later.