New-York tribune., 1907-03-06
VIOLENT STOCK BREAK.
ADAY OF HEAVY TRADING
Many Nezc Lo,r Records for 1907
Up. Not Selling Hill St0cks.

In the last two hours OF trading yesterday
occurred the most rapid and violent break Ehe
stock market has suffered in the course OF tie
decline which has for several weeks oeeh III
progress The opening had been lrree nlu
in the morning hours gradual rally had TAKEN
mace led hv the Hill stocks and Reading 10
which support was apparently belhs eA'eiiueu'
some of the strength Of Great Northern any
Northern Pacific being due 10 ruihors 1lid'
peace had been arranged between M. mn "''o
Mr.. Hartman. and also that J. p Morgan q
70 had ..Lap over from the Union Pacific its
remaining holdings nj the shares OF the t"o
roads But around : O'Clock a heavy selling
Increment set In under the pressure OF Which
the entire list began a decline which De1ore uho
close reached the proportions OF sem-pa"lc'
final prices being in most instances uie '0"S's
or fractionally above the lowest oi inc u"S, anu
many new low levels for the current year pe'hs
,o,,cbo6 The trading was of great volume
sales aggregating about l.I49ooo shares' the
largest single DAYS business since August ~
1905. the day following the declaration OF tne
So Ithe-l Pacific dividend and the hcreaSeu
I-pion Pacific dividend when 100000 shares
were solo.
Great Northern and Northern Pacific were
ou,oD, tho few issues which scored net ad-
,.oDoe. the former after a maximum decline
NJ AZ noints 10 100. raying to l5ls at the
close a net gain of lss points. and the latter'
following a decline of points. with recovery
of IL points 10 1865 at the close IA points
above Mondays final price. Pennsylvania was
steadied by the excellent showing mace III II"
annual report, published yesterday morning anu
after moving within a range of Ia points. closed
with a net loss of only Is per cent The Harri-
man issues were noticeably weak. Southern
Pacific lost 45s points on the day. after having
touched a level nearly point under its closing
price Union Pacific fell 10 1632s and closed at
l642l. net decline of 21s points Baltimore
Ohio lost 39s points. closing at 1O5, its lowest
of the day; ST. Paul lost 1% points and At
chison the dividend on which. it is understood
on excellent authority, will not be increased at
the next dividend meeting of the directors.
suffered a net loss of Gla points. Missouri Pa
cifc, the friendIess. went TO 76A. its lowest
record for several years. and closed an even
point under Monday, at 76I5. Brooklyn Rapid
Transit lost Gla points. Louisville & Nashville
and Canadian Pacific 2H The stocks Of the
Southern steel group were very weak, Tennessee
Coal and Iron. on sales of 300 shares. losing
points Republic Iron and Steel common de-
clining 22s points. and Sloss-Shefiied common
a. United States Steel preferred broke below
1O2 the price at which the 25OOO shares set
aside this year under the profit sharing plan
were sold to employees of the corporation, and
closed n points down at 10iA, while the COM
mon lost q of a point, Amalgamated Copper
shared the general weakness in spite of the
steadily increasing price of its product and
closed at a net loss of 2as points.
TRANSACTIONS NUMEROUS.
There were transactions in rs issues un-
usually large list. which means that some strong
boxes were visited by their owners and securi-
ties taken from them and sold the days trad
ing indeed included sales Of small lots Of such
inactive issues Canada Southern and New
York, New Haven & Hartford. There We're sales
of one hundred shares each of United States and
Wels-Fargo Express stocks at net declines. re-
spectively. of Is and 10 points.
The selling which precipitated the afternoon
break came from large Western houses. and as
the decline gathered way stocks were poured in
10 the market from all quarters. many accounts
being closed out because of disincnation or in
ability Of customers to put up additional mar
gin, and great many stop loss orders being
reached. A large percentage of the sales rep
resented genuine liquidation. but there was also
heavy and confident selling for the short ac-
count. and ii the partial covering by shorts
TO which was chiefly due the small rally in a
few issues from their bottom prices of tho day.
There were developments Of n sort to de-
press stock market prices. and the best eXpla-
nation of the break seemed to be that II was
simply a continuation in a more violent form
than heretofore witnessed. of the letting go OF
their holdings by large operators and pools who
had failed in their effort to unload those hold
ings on the public at high prices and who were
being forced to tighten their burden in the only
other possible way. by liquidation. There were
naturally rumors of the embarrassment Of some
body other, but these reports were not as
definite as they have been on several occasions
IN the recent past and careful inquiry did not
reveal any house as in danger of failure. That
certain large individual operators have been
hard hit, however, there is reason to believe.
and IL IS probable that several large pools have
lost great deal Of money
Among the weird stories current in the Street
was one that members of one of the most pow
erful groups of capitalists were incensed at an
associate, not now in the city, and had in sat
iSfactOn of their grievance been pounding"
certain stocks in which he was known to be in
terested. Another tale had il that the Union
Pacifc's selling had caused the big decline in
Great Northern and Northern Pacific in the
last few weeks. AS To the latter story, II can
be said on the highest authority that the Union
Pacific has not sold any of its holdings Of the
Hill stocks i'm the declines since around the first
of the year 2hat prices may go still lower is
not Improbable hut that they getting near
the level at which bargain hunters win Journey
downtown to gather them in is the best opinion
in Wall Street.
NOT LOWEST PRICES.
7. &c tl,e impression of many that prices arc
nov, down TO or not far above the low level of
1903 and 1904 belief which is not borne out
nv .l,o following table. in which the low points
or a number of active stocks yesterday are
co.npared with their Low records for the other
years mentioned:
Low roint.-o