The Washington times., 1907-12-17
NEW YORK STOCKS
VERY IRREGULAR
Weak Early With Copper
and Reading Sott-Slight
ReCoVerieS.

NEW YORK. Dec. 17.-Noon.-This
mornings market was somewhat I'M
settled. soft in spots, and reasonably
well held In others The opening was
attended by bear pressure here and
there throughout the list. pressure that
was applied with confidence, and with
evident intept TO bring the general mar
ket into a decline. But this pressure
met with the same opposition that has
been apparent of late especially in the
high-grade shares. which yielded only
slightly, and where there were unmiS-
taxable evidences of a strong under
tone, because on the breaks the re-
coveries were quick, even If only partial
The bears gave Reading a good shake
down In an effort 10 have its influence
scattered here and there. They pre-
pared 20 attack New York Central, and
then abandoned II.
There was enough irreEularity to salts
fy the scalper, but not much more. al
though there were evidences here and
there Of shorts covering The short
line is unquestionably large. and any
attempt to cover Will be marked by re-
cOveries. There are a number OF or
derS for stocks slightly below current
prices. It Is within the probabilities
that shorts will commence evening up
their trades against the holidays in the
near future, the more so as the general
opinion favors an advancing movement
Of moderate proportions with the pay
ment Of the millions on interest and
dividend account.
The Opening.
The opening was attended with losses
OF rs on Sugar, Reading. AmalEa-
mated. and points on Air Brake. Read
ing increased its decline soon after to
points and the bears attacked Penn
sylvania for APPOINT loss. 500 COM
mon added 2 points to its loss. Some
Of the stocks lost A6l2. while the other
industrials were slightly lower and
very dull. Il
For an hour. OF nearly that time. the
market Continued slow and feltureless,
with the declines pressing. when il
turned. on shorts covering and much Of
the loss in standard stocks was recOv-
ered-this excepting Reading, Chesa-
peake and Ohio, Pennsylvania.
At noon Copper was still off q,
Smelter, y; Brooklyn Rapid Transit. a
point. Chesapeake and Ohio. a point.
and many others. ( to II OF Reading
ern was where IL closed yesterday. and
Northern Pacific a shade firmer. New
York Central had not only recovered its
loss. but had made a slight gain.
There was not much doing and the
trend toward higher prices seemed to
be based entirely on short covering.
which might be changed 10 pressure at
any minute.
D. Hl.-EuIeTluE the nrSt nOuT or tho
afternoon the market became weak
again. the shorts pressing for the ad-
vantage and withdrawing as buyers
The result was turn for the worse TO
the entire market. although Ni7per.
Great Northern. and a few high-grade
rails gave evidence Of inherent strength
and refused 10 yield a fraction
Copper made a new low and Read
ing was decidedly weak. The Steels
dropped 3, and other stocks L03s The
market lost its temporary activity and
became very slow again. II may be
that in the final dealings there may be
some slight reCoveries. but entering the
second hour OF the afternoon the ten
dency was bearish and in favor OF low
prices. Conditions are not ripe for a
recovery.
NEW YORK. Dec. 17.-Close-Tne
market after the announcement Of the
extra 2 per cent dividends by Lake
Shore and Michigan Central. two Van
derblt subsidiary roads. turned firm IN
spots and weak in others. The strong
spots of the morning. and well into the
afternoon, the Hill shares. became very
weak. The bears have heretofore held
of from testing these shares. but they
took them this afternoon midships. and
Northern dropped points. TO ll2a4 and
Northern Pacific. rs. to 113H In the
meantime Reading advanced to sos.
from S7lz. recovering most Of its loss.
but not all. Missouri Pacific was IL OF.
Baltimore and Ohio. Delaware and Hud-
son, and New York Central We're firm
Spots. Smelter and Copper recovered
much o. their losses Pennsylvania
was off point.