The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1910-01-28
WALL STREET NEWS
Heavy Fall of Prices with
Recovery at Close.
PARIS FLOOD CAUSES SELLING
From an International Financial
View, the Estimated Damage OF
600, 100000 Will Have Its Effect
for Some Time 20 COme-Supreme
Court Tobacco Decision Awaited.

New York. Jan. 27.-Seemingly the
stock market has passed into a phase
where the greater number OF those max
ing it a daily business TO buy and sell Sc
curities are DESTROYS of conducting these
operations along identical lines at pre-
cisely the same period.
Everybody seems TO want to buy OF sell
at the same movement, which is only an
other way of saying. perhaps. that the
market, for the time being. is governed
by a species OF hysteria rather than by
the exercise Of even a moderate amount
Of discriminating judgment.
On Tuesday there was semi-panic. and
stocks we're violently dumped upon the
market by all classes Of spectators.
Yesterday nine-tenths OF those who had
sold the day before were, so far as super
fetal indications went, engaged in ss
hastily buying back the stocks which
they had before sold To-day the tum-
bling-out process was again repeated.
leading once more 10 a heavy fall il
prices. with, however, some recovery at
the close of the days business. Some of
the leading stocks to-day-notably. the
Union Pacific and Reading common shares
sold at the lowest level of the year. A like
performance was almost repeated by
United States Steel common stock, and
extreme declines Of from one to three
points were commonly shown. Just what
led 20 the break was quite uncertain, and
ali such definite explanations" as were
offered therefor seemed to be more or less
specious.
The sensational stories Of the foods In
Paris printed in the morning newspapers
were generally attributed as one great
cause of the selling. II escaped notice
that in Paris itself the stock market was
higher.
Politics again came in for a share OF
denunciation as a permanent source of
financial uneasiness. and the uniformity
of reports in trade journals yesterday Of
a lull in the iron and steel trade were
made as much of as possible. Il must
be admitted. of course. that If the dam
age caused in Paris by the Overlooking
of the Seine amounts to as great a sum
as S2Oo,00O,000, estimated, the matter will
be serious from an international financial
point OF view.
Probably the present feeling Of dis
couragement and pessimism in the finan-
Cial district would not be as great as It
is II It were not for the fact that the
anxiously awaited decision of the Su-
preme Court OF the United States, con-
STRUNG the antitrust law in the Ameri-
can Tobacco case, cannot be reasonably
expected for several weeks, and perhaps
for several months to come, and the
theory seems logical enough that the
larger financial interest OF the sort TO
which reference has been made feel like
adopting a highly conservative policy in
all business operations until this deci-
sion has been handed down and the adj
vice of counsel has been taken as TO its
exact meaning.
Finally. it cannot have escaped atten-
ton that a specific feature Of the stock
market recently has been the particular
and exceptional weakness Of Union Pa
cific common stock.
The support Of this stock has been
feebler than in any other prominent
quarter on the security list, and excep-
tiOnal reasons seem 10 exist for the de-
cline in the price Of the issue.