The Washington herald., 1908-01-22
MARKET SELLS OFF
sharp Break in Several Ac-
tive Securities.
WEAKNESS UNACCOUNTED FOR
""heE Situation Continues Easy and
OaSh AecumuIates-RaIly on the
THOR in Midday Brings Prices
Generally 40 Good Level, which
Is Not Maintained.

+NVN OK, Jan. 1.-THE leSiJafiDg tone
II the stock market, which eliminated
N general decline I'm security prices.
Yesterday. ana the leadership of sharp
iYeak just before the close Of business i'm
oAe or two active stocks. ran to-day into
severe and for the most part continuous
further fan in values which affected al
prominent shares.
mere did not seem to be any particu-
Tar o" suficing reasons for the weakness
OF the market, except that for some time
past the bulk OF conservative judgment
IN Wall street las favored tho opinoin
that the advance i'm price has been push
cd forward too rapidly and that the mar
ket was giving more OF less plain signs of
topheaviness.
Market Continues Easy.
There was at any rate TO change to-
gay, except in the direction of further
ease IN the money situation. Money still
continues 10 accumulate here On great
volume, The local banks having gained
thus far over 100000 from the sub
treasury since last Friday Il was au-
thoritatively stated that the amount of
outstanding clearinghouse loan certff-
Gates had been reduced from Sq7ul060
the amount originally issued. TO Slg00ool0.
Time money was offered to-day IN
large volume AT per cent. finding few.
If any. takers. while call loans were COM
monty made at PIP per cent. the lowest
price at which the bulk of transactions
or this sort has been consummated in any
one days business for many months.
All reports from the old side of the At
lantic. too. We're of similar ease there.
leading 10 renewed predictions that the
directors of the bank of England would
md Il difficult To maintain. as it was
believed they were anxious 10 do. the
banks discounts at its present figure off
o per cent A further reduction i'm the
discount rate Of the Bank of France is
also thought 20 be impending.
II is, Of course, wholly probable under
these circumstances that anything re-
semblng advancing rates for the use of
money abroad would result I'm large ex-
ports OF gold from this country. There
were. however. no indications of any such
tndeEcy IN the foreign exchange market
to-day.
Trading During Day.
The feature of the stock market I'm the
opening hours Of business was a further
drop in the American Smelling and Re.
fniug shares. There was no effort IN the
early trading 20 attempt to hold the gen
erai market firm under the continuance
OF selling in this especial quarter.
For a time, around midday, the market
rallied not a little. and held with a fair
amount of steadiness, so that the quota
,[,ons for the leading stocks reached at
~ time in The majority of cases better
1 tdys' final level.
In the afternoon, however. the market
sagged of rapidly in sympathy with a
collapse IN the Reading common shares.
the last prices being generally at the
lowest of the day. and at declines rang
ing usually from one 90 three points
OF the days transactions or sos 900
shares, more than one-thiGd was com
pTised OF dealings I'm Reading common.
and the price of this issue broke SIS
points, making a total decline in the
quotations for the stock of eight points
On the last two days.