The Washington herald., 1907-03-26
WALL STREET NOTES
Sharp Decline in COppers and
Steel Brings Trouble.
NEW Low LEVELS REACHED
Despite Reassuring Messages irom
Europe Rush to Sell Carries All Be-
fore It-NO Good Reasons for the
slump, which Is Chiefly in Issues
of the Northwestern Lines.


of the Northwestern Lines.
New York. March 25.--In the London
market. prior to the New York opening.
Americans were strong. Boil London
and Berlin sent. over reassuring messages
regarding conditions In those centers. The
Secretary of the Treasury permitted the
covering with savings bank collateral Of
government deposits now secured by short
As. There were gold engagements aggre-
eating 81. SIS, 600. And the stock market
broke to a level well below the panic
prices Of March H. with prices declining
more sharply than on any other day since
that time. 1t was a market unaffected
by good news. and bankers after the close
had only the vaguest and most general
reasons 70 account for the decline. Seem
ingly there were not well-founded rumors
of impending failures, every such report
being but repetition of rumors affecting
houses which. according 10 weIl-informed
bankers. are OF unquestioued solvency. It
is not believed that the few such rumors
bruited about the street had an effect on
the market.
Most bankers. accordingly, could ascribe
no cause for the weakness of the general
list except the same reasons often re-
peated of late, universal money stringen-
cy, governmental regulation. liquidation
induced by fear or force, and inability OF
many big men of the street To advance
sufficient support to counteract bear at
tacks.
While London's news was for the most
part -reassuring. it was distinctly bearish
in coppers There was a break of more
than s. a ton in the price Of copper the
metal in London, which is equal to IL
cents pound. It was the first decline
for seven months in the price OF the
metal, and was accompanied by a sharp
decline in tin. On account Of it the
traders looked askance on the copper
shares and raid on them was signally
successful Amalgamated was forced down
TO sos, only = above the low price Of the
panic. Anaconda sold down to 57Is. and
the breaks IN Smelters and Lead were
even more serious.
Yet the decline in the London quotations
for the metal was without effect on New
York metal markets. In London. where
copper futures are dealt IN much as are
cotton futures here, there has been
Wild speculation in futures. a speculation
that. according 10 New York dealers, is
based on supply of not much more than
1900 tons Of copper.
General market conditions I'm London.
these New York dealers said produced
a liquidation in futures that they con-
sidered Of little account as affecting the
spot markets here. Notwithstanding a
more or less general knowledge of these
conditions, bear operators pointed to q
sharp decline in Rio Tinto. which was
advanced TO a 20 per cent dividend last
week, and many of them sold the copper
shares heavily in the Boston market as
well as here.
Shelters sold down to 10 on the day OF
the panic, and closed at 49, To-day il
sold down 10 1884 and stood at 100, with
a net loss OF 81 points for the day.
Al the low Of the day the stock showed
a break Of 1914 points, and the subsequent
advance may as web have been induced
by short covering as anything else. Late
in the forenoon the stock lost points in
as many minutes. aid it was in this period
that some OF the largest blocks of the
day came out on the tape. Apparently
some large holders we're obliged TO let 20
this time
There were reports that certain pool
holdings had been thrown overheard. and
one of the apparently best verified stories
OF the day had il that one large operator
had encountered "a loss second only TO that
sustained by some Of the members of the
social pool in the Hartman stocks. At the
low prices of the day there was scattered
buying by investors who had it figured
out that Smelters was d good hard times
stock The earnings, these men said. had
stood up in preYiOys periods of depression
in better shape than the earnings of most
other industrials.
The Steel shares were others that fell
to low record prices. It has often been
said of them that being large bodies they
moved slowly, but the downward course
of the common and preferred was brisk
enough to-day. The break was the sharp
est that either had sustained IN all the
long decline. At the low of the day the
common was at 3l1s. as against SO on the
day Of the panic and the closing at 32K as
compared with "a on March Il. The pre-
ferred broke from 977s Saturdays closing.
to 9l1z and closed at 1895. The low clos
ing March IA was 953s Brokers reported
much investment buying at the low prices
Of the day. and there was nowhere any
other reason aseribed for the decline i'm
either issue than that concentration OF
bear pressure upon them would carry
other industrials more smoothly on the
downward path. Altogether the attack
Of the day seemed concentrated princ!-
pally on the industrials.
One reason for the disregard of the re-
assuring news from London may have
been that both London and Berlin have
on previous occasions. when unsteady at
home, bolstered up their own markets
for effect on the New York
market, and then proceeded to sell stocks
in large quantities here. In some quar- |
ters this way of looking at London's
market was taken so seriously as TO ere
ate a tendency to attribute even Lord
Rothschild's statement to d desire for
sentimental effect on prices.
\ prominent banker said that his ad-
vices from London were reassuring. but |
that in his opinion, there. as well as
here, the money stTingency and the big
break in prices were producing anxious /
hours for large number of men. The
Berlin situation he considered not quite
SO good as that in London
If We take for granted all the reassrr- /
ing reports of better things abroad. said 1
one banker, I'VE must reach the eonclu- +
sion that the seat OF the trouble is here /
do not consider that the case. 1 persist /
IN the belief that conditions here are |