The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-03-01
YESTERDAT's STOCK MARKAr
Topples Over Owing to Tight Money
 and Rise in Rates,

New York. Feb. 2S.AThere were nc ] developments in conditions or affairs
 to-da yto account in any measure for
 Lne heayy liquidation and the violent declines in prices which occurred in the
 stock market. An active demand de- 1 Veloped for money and there were con.
 siderable Withdrawals of credits from
 the stock market. But it is not prob able that restrictions of credits were large enough to force liqudation in any proportion to the actual selling which occurred. The rise in money rates.
 however, and the selling which was in
 duced proved amply sufficient to topple over a market which had become top heaVy and easily vulnerable by a pro- gresslve growth of distrust over the level of prices ruling and the means which have been employed to achieve that level
 number of the projects which have been subject to industrious rumor in the stock market and the motives for some of the most active advances and the largest speculative buying have come into distrust, and. in some cases, actual discredft within the last few days An important instance is the project for the purchase of the lands held by the Great Northern Railroad company in the interest of the United States Steel corporation. The accom- pnshment of thls project has been ac- cepted as certainty although no au- thentic or official Information on it's terms have ever been given the public Reports in the last two days of a hitch Tn the negotiations have aroused a fear mat the project might fall through. But of oFe ensct ol these reports on the prices or stocks concerned in the project dis closes realization on the part of spec ulattve operators that the price move ments in them have been extraya pant and beyond anything warranted by the promise of the actual accomplishment or the proposed projects.
 The action of the copper and metal stocks shows the results of similar con dlt1ons In the speculation. The forma- tlon or the Butte Coalition Mining com pany and the taking over of the oppo- sitlon copper properties in Montana in the interest of the Amalgamated Cop per company were recognized as mad equate grounds for the extent of the speculative advances in the stocks con cerned
 When the none supply grew restrict- ed to-day and active efforts had to be made to secure funds by speculative holders of securities thus situated it was found that a keen discrimination was used against them as collateral for lending money. The usual margins de- manded on the market value of securi- ties in the amount of the loans were widely extended, and in some cases it was reported that such stocks were thrown out as collateral altogether. ihe pdHhlHB Slluatlon Tn New York and the demands for funds offered ample explanation for the action of the money market. The only relief to be had was by liquidation. The course of the mon ey market for some time past has point ed to this outcome, but speculative op- orators have ignored it owing to conf 1 dence in the precedent of the market last December, when a 125 per cent. rate ket. -'''''
 The liquidation seemed to have spent but the nervous fluctuations at the Iast were not far from the low level of the | day Losses in some of the stocks that | were severely affected ran to 10 and 12 | points, while the declines ranged very | between 2 and points.
 Bonds were weak Total sales nar value, $2,630. O00. p'-
 United States twos registered advance | ed A on call