The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1906-12-25
MARKET STILL WEAK
Further Break in Prices.
with but Little Trading.
HILL GROUP IS ATTACKED
Bears Continue Work OF Saturday,
and with Exception of Copper,
Weakness Is GeneraI-CaU for
More Margins Not Cheering Christ
mas News to Small Investors.


mas News TO Small Investors.
New York. Dec 24.-The recurrence OF
weakness in the stock market on Satur-
day. together with the unexpected failure
on that day of a stock exchange firm OF
considerable importance led naturally tC
the sending out of calls for additional
margins from customers by many Wall
street commission firms, and this event
was in turn logically followed by a further
liquidation in the security market to-day
The result was a sharp break in prices in
the fore part of the day which made new
low levels on the part of many Of the
principal stocks.
After a time the market became very
dull presenting many of the aspects as
those which are Familiarity known in
Wall street as partakiug Of Il holiday
character. During this time. too, the
market was frmer. rallies Of a point OF
more being common in the stocks that
had fallen most. Nevertheless. the adj
vance was conducted dispiritedly, and was
of a kind that indicated no more than a
desuItory retirement Of contractors for
the fall by speculative traders.
In the last hour of business heavy
selling of stocks again set in. carrying
quotations in most instances TO the lowest
points Right at the close the market
was again a little stronger. but not
materially strong.
But the brunt Of the selling was borne,
as it has been recently. by a few stocks,
principally, the Hill group, and such
extreme declines were made as ID points
in the Great Northern preferred shares,
in Northern Pacific / Ii in Union Pacific
in Reading common, . IS in St Paul. ! s..
in Southern Pacific, 3 in Colorado Fuel
and Iron and 3 in Canadian Pacific.
These losses were reduced somewhat by
the final rally.
No Reason for Declines.
II the partial tying up Of freight traffic
on the Southern Pacific system by the
strike Of hremen be excepted, there was
nothing in the news of the day to account
particularly for the further break in the
market that occurred. and so far as could
be observed the labor difficulty referred
TO was not market factor of any weight
Prices OF securities are not as responsive
to difficulties of this kind as they used to
be, and the trouble in question, moreover
seems of "a sort that is likely 10 be soon
adjusted. Some influence upon the market
was exerted to-day, perhaps. by the To-
port from Minnesota that the State
authorities proposed taxing the ore lands
leased by the Great Northern To the
rnrfH -
full valuation placed upon them by the
officers Of the Great Northern Company in
sworn statements recently made in other
proceedings. According TO the terms oi
the lease. taxes upon the lands are @
Doe paid by their lessons. not by the
lessees, and the questions. therefore is OF
no moment so far as the United States
Steel Corporation is concerned
While the decline in Great Northern
preferred stock to-day might haze been
assisted icy this rum0r, the matter did not
seem 90 affect the price Of Great Northern
Gre certificates and il is not, after all
considered probable that the proposition
To tax the land as discussed was such as
TO cloud the future of the property Ar
element initiating against the market to-
day was no doubt the large account open
FOR the rise in American stocks disclosed
az the weekly financial settlement in Lon
don and the very high charges imposed
therefor carrying these securities until
The next settlement day. Such charges
or "ceutangOs." as they are called. ran
from 10 10 i per cent and represent much
the most OnerOUs burdens Of the kind ever
imposed. As the result of this there was
some selling OF stocks here by London
houses. these operations being. in essence
however. q retranSferenCe 10 a moderate
extent from London 10 this side of specu-
lative commitments for the account OF
American operators entered in the English
market.
Money Mt Low Figure.
The money situation to-day was little
changed from that NJ the close Of last
week, bank renewals being ordinarily
made at the comparatively easy rate OF
s per cent while the highest call loan OF
the day was at 81 per cent. The buls
Of call money borrowed during the stock
exchange session was at a rate not fan
from 6 per cent Time money rates. while
perhaps slightly easier in tone. as the re-
suit of the lower price for call funds. were
not quoted at other than the high figure,
recently prevailing Sterling exchange feI
heavily to-day.
In the afternoon announcement was
made of an additional y cents share
in the quarterly dividend rate on the
Anaconda mining shares thus establish
ms the annual rate of distribution upon
the stock at Is per cent This caused no
more than n barely perceptible advance
I'm the Anaconda and Amalgamated Cop
per stocks It was noticeable, however
that the Amalgamated stock resisted
more strongly than almost any other
security largely dealt in in the declining
tendency of the day.
Liquidation in the first hour Of bust
ness to-day came largely from commission
houses whose commissioners had failed tC
respond to calls for more margins on
stocks that had suffered severely in the
decline last week There was at this time
q good deal OF bear selling on the talk OF
further embaTTaSsments, but some Of the
shorts afterWaTd covered when il was
found that the house sheets had gone
through all right Except during the
first hour. when transactions totaled
about $4,000 shares, the market was
almost entirely of a holiday character
with, however, an encouraging feature in
the fact that for the time being liquida-
ton seemed TO have contracted very con
siceTably in volume
There was no appearance of what could
be called good buying at any time during
the day. So far as appearances Went
there was little else TO sustain prices
than the covering OF shorts, and the
question is whether this was really all
there was or whether important buying
was so well disguised as to appear in