The Washington herald., 1907-03-26

New York March 25.-SelIing pressure
exerted principally upon the industriaIs,
but not neglecting the standard specuia-
tive railroad shares, drove the stock mar
ket to-day through the low level Of prices
reached on March II. the date of the re-
cent panic. The course OF the market
was steady recession, but with feebIs
rally at the close.
The close found the average price OF
thirty railroad and industrial stocks at
sS7s, a loss OF 25s points for the day and FIVE
eighths Of per cent below the average Of
the same stocks at the close on March Il
In the twenty statistical railroad stocks
there was an average decline Of ~ points
The average closing price was 9S-Z7, as
compared with s9.71 on March Il
There were other industrials and sev.
eral railroad stocks with losses heavier
than were scored by the shares Of ths
United States Steel Corporation. but in
no others were the declines so excep-
tionai, ROT were there in any Of the
others declines which, in the aggregate
Of market valuations, represented so Sc.
we're q loss.
Without any news unfavoTabiy affect.
ing the value OF the steel shares. both
the common and the preferred broke far
below the low prices Of the panic, al
which time the Steel shares held. b
comparison. very strong.
Heavy sale of steel shares.
Transactions in Steel common reached
the enormous total Of 309S50. and in the
preferred d total of $3.50 shares. The
common exceeded in activity any other
security on the list At the opening the
common was a fraction above Saturdays
closing, but the preferred was is points
of, and Ii was this initial weakness IN
the preferred which gave the first intims-
ton of the loss that was to come.
Apparently, brokers said. some large
holders of the preferred had come to
the conclusion that if was either advis-
able or necessary for them 10 liquidate.
An alert bear party. noting the opening
weakness. attacked both the common and
preferred shares with vigor
Under the combination of bear attack
and forced liquidation the preferred drop
| ped steadily, until it touched sllk,
points below the low price on March H.
{
against "A closing at 957s on March a.
The common got down to 31ia and closed
at S2i4, as compared with a panic low
and panic closing Of 80 and 81, respec-
/ lively.
While the Steel shares were making
1 these new low records The bear party
was also achieving great success in uu-
covering long accounts in Smelters. In
| the panic this stock got no lower than
] ll0 and closed at l13. To-day il dropped
/ from 117iz TO 1914. and closed at l69. The
break of 1874 points was the sharpest OF
/ the day. and it was accompanied by
rumors of pool losses.
SmeIters' Pool Wrecked.
| 4 large pool in the stock. it was said,
/ had not been entirely dissolved, but sons
members of the pool had been unable or
unwilling 10 answer calls for theiH por-
tions of the requisite margins, and the
stocks of these members had been re-
LEASED from the pool and thrown upon
the market Bear operators were re-
ported to be cunning for other members
OF the pool. but it was by well-inforned
! persons that the surviving members were
abundantly able to keep the remaining
holdings intact.
New low records Tor the year were also
made for upward of a score Of less con-
/ spicuous stock. The decline was accom-
panied by few rumOrs Of impending fail
ures In this respect the day was a repe-
tition or more correctly, an imitation OF
the 'quiet panies. so-called. Of March -
and II. Bankers were practically unani-
nous in stating that calls for additional
collateral were net promptly. and that
frs faqa - hal
/ been necessary to throw over collateral
/ for collection of loans
! They repeated the remark often uttered
| in the past two weeks, that everything
was all right except the quotations.
| Neither during the day nor on any pre-
vious day of the bear movement has there
! been the slightest intimation of any trou-
bic with any of the banks, whether inside
/ the clearinghouse or not.