The Washington herald., 1909-08-28
WALL STREET NEWS
MarketAgain Shows Nervous
and Furious Trading.
RALLY IS ABNORMALLY WEAK
Heavy Liquidation Supplied Stocks
Freely TO Professional Operators,
So that Extensive Covering Was
Conducted Easily-Harriman's Con-
dition Still n Factor I'm Street.

New York. Aug. N.-In another nervous,
excited. and tremblous stock market to-
day. with trade proceeding al the same
furious pace as on previous days OF the
week, and with the same perplexities OF
speculative opinion. stocks rallied feebly
and then sold of rapidly There were
net gains In all the active stocks at the
close, but neither these gains nor the
rally itself gave any impression OF sta
bility or strength.
At the top OF the rally Union Pacific
and Southern Pacific were up but two
points. and New York Central but 2 3-S
points up from yesterdays closing prices.
whereas in two stock exchange sessions
yesterday and the day before Union Pa
cifc had declined II rs points. Southern
Pacific 3 rs points, and New York Cen
tral is points.
Rally AbnOrmRlIy Weak.
The rally was thus abnormally weak
in view Of the extent and violence OF the
breaks in the two previous days alone.
and when it is considered that Union
Pacific had decline p points from the
high price Of last week. the rally in these
stocks must be regarded as even less I'M
pressive.
II was not as great a recovery as
could have been expected from the COW
ering Of short contracts alone and the
demand for stocks in the loan crowd
corroborated the belief everywhere held
that the short interest is Of large pro-
portions
Evidently to-day. as was the case yes
terday and Wednesday heavy liquidation
supplied stocks freely to professional
traders and other experienced operators
who have sold short very heavily in re-
cent days, so that the extensive cover
ing Of the day was conducted easily and
probably.
AS to the sources Of the liquidation.
there was. as usual, great difference of
opinion. but II seems certain that a con-
siderable portion Of II proceeded from
customers OF the commission houses
which were heavily loaded with stocks,
as heavy realizing sales by important
holders we're in progress and stocks
were, 70 an important extent, passing
from strong into weak hands.
Such liquidation was induced by the
uncertainty OF speculative opinion and
in the later afternoon by a fresh batch
Of alarming reports regarding Mr.. Har-
rimans health. The first OF these re-
them was followed by heavy selling.
which left the market nervous and
vacillating at the close
Trading In the Hartman stocks was
again active, and IL was the action Of
these shares particularly that impressed
the rally with Its weak and indecisive
character. Otherwise the market seemed
TO have more substance and fundamental
strength than on the two previous days.
An Encouraging Feature.
In Steel common trading was in even
greater volume than in Union Pacific,
and the strength OF this stock. which
closed only four points below its high
record price. was an encouraging feature,
compensating to some extent for the un-
favorable deductions naturally drawn
from the action Of some OF the others.
The stocks OF railroads with which Mr.
Harriman's name is not connected were
also reasonably firm, and the movements
in these were reasonably natural II
was obvious. however, that the market
as a whole had not determined upon
the manner OF accepting the reports
regarding Mr.. Hartman. and the con-
dtion Of his health seems still a market
factor of prime importance, and one
which makes speculation, except with
wel-protected accounts. extremely haz-
ardOus.