Norwich bulletin., 1909-05-21
FINANCIAL AND COMMERCIAL.
UPWARD MOVEMENT ENDED.
Best Prices for Year in Number of
 Important Stocks.

New York, May 20.-The reaction in the late stock market today had no other explanation than the seeming exhaustion of the power of the up- ward movement The morning dealings showed animation and great strength, ! prices of some of the favorite specula l tive issues rising to record figures. | United States Steel had never sold at | 50 before nor had Southern Pacific ever sold at 124 1-2 until today. Readings rise to 150 2-4 placed it at the highest l pr 'ce since January of 1906, and Union Pacific yet back to the highest level | of rhes present year. Best prices for 1 the present year were touched, in fact, by d;Aber of important stocks. The halt to this prosperous course of the market came Gfer the action on the HdrriTY!ah dividends were announced, although Mir. Hartman stated before entering the board roqm that the rates | rrol ably would be unchanged. The heavy selling of Union Pacific and Southarn Pacific which followed the | declaration of dividends at unchanged | rates as attributed to disappointme | ever the failure to advance the divi- l dends. Rumors of an Dntention to l advance the dividends on these two | stocks have been circulated from time l to time for great many months. AD- parently some hopes were entertained
 
 | it's dividend to help along the market | ing of the convertible bonds ofc the ! company recently hoated. The weak ness of the Hartman stocks, however, was no greater than that in Chesa- peake and Ohio after the declaration of the 1 per cent. quarterly dividend | on that stock, thus fulfilling a long standing expectation of the placing of | the stock on 4 per cent. basis. Its | price has been advanced many times | on recurrent rumors that this action | was imminent, but it ran off today with ] the fulfllmen of the prediction. The | like movement in these two cases with | contrasting influences in operation, | showed plainly that another cause was at work in both. Speculative profit | was a principal factor in the reaction. | The selling of United States Steel at | 50 seemed to be taken as a signal for | such profit taking on very large scale. In the early stages of the present campaign flor the rise in United States Steel, advocates of the movement claimed with apparent reclklessness that 1 it would not culminate until it had | touched 50. The price predicted has | been advanced from time to time since | then. but evidently the suspicion was 1 widespread that the fulfllment of the ] first prediction might mark the ob- | jectve of the campaign. The increase
 
 ! was ef some benefit to that stock and
 to others in the Southern group, but 1 their advances were not all held. Ac- | tifI conditions bearing on values were net much changed and the speculative position ruled the price movement. Re pirts from the steel trade were of very
 bright prospects and of increasing or
 ders for all lines of finished products l Copper rose in price at the local metal exchange. London was considerable | buyer of stocks in this market, al- 1 though the origin of these buying or
 ders was a matter of some doubt | There was some ground for supposins
 that large orders In the market yester-
 day and early today were designed to safeguard prices against any possible
 shock caused by the sudden death yes | terday of H. H. Rogers. The support ing orders may have been withdrawn 1 with the demonstration of the fast l that they were not needed to protect the market on that account. Bonds 1 were irregular Total sales, par value | $5,082, 900. United States fours regis l tered declined IA per cent. on call.