The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-09-28
CONFUSION IN STOCK TRADING Not Since Panic Have
 Such Fluctuations Oc- f cured

 F prevailed throughout today's trading on the stock exchange. Fluctuations were wider than at any previous time during the turbulent sessions of the last 1eW weeks. The range of prices Of leading stocks in several reactions reached SIX points. Not for many years aside from times of panic have such fluctuations occurred within a single session.
 Total sales of stocks were l,12o'ooo shares, by far the largest of the year.
 Dealings in United States Steel eciipsed last Fridays record, reaching s'zi'soo shapes. the largest number of shares or this stock ever traded in one session.
 Transactions in Reading and Union Pa sifc also were abnormaiiy heavy, reach inc. 19S, 700 shares in the case of the for- mer stock and 27e.soo shares for the lat ter. s-2
 On the strength of the united states Steel corporations statement that it would not dissolve voluntarily prices were car ried up violently at the outset, gains in some cases amounting to points. The market soon gave way.
 Under the influence of a series of se- we're attacks it's gains were lost and at the close some of the leading issues were points or more below the previous days final range. ~
 The statement of the United States Steel corporation proved as ineffective in steadying the tide of selling as that of Attorney GeneRal Wicl.ersham. Although the statement effectively put at rest the one which caused the heavy. decline in the stock yet Wall street refused to &C., cept it as sufficient reason for overcom- ing it's nervousness. The immediate ef- feet of the statement was a stampede of the short interest. Before the open ing here prices were marked up in Lon don and when trading began in this mar ket the volume of business was without precedent
 Tn the first quarter hour nore than 1s.oOO shares of United States Steel were traded in. At the end of half an hour the total had grown to 275,000 Tl.e opening was a block of 3S,0OO shares at 59h to 62 maximum gain of 5S. Transactions were by the thousands of shares, individual sales running up to ' 75O0 The preferred stock gained more than , points.
 Advances among the active list gem orally ran up to points, The selling reached ominoIs proportions in the early afternoon and prices melted away. It was apparent that the early rise had been taken advantage of for further liquda- tion and during the remainder of the session stocks were offered whenever the opportunity presented.
 Bear traders were encouraged by the failure of the market to hold it's advan- tage and hammered the list relentlessly.- The list exhibited extreme nervousness with abnormally wide fluctuations to the close. s1t s'
 Asyiolent decline indwabash securities contributed to the weakness of the ses- sion The debeHture As fell 10ts to 47, and both sthe-common and preferred stock broke abruptly.
 Subsequently, 4tlie bonds recovered half of their loss. The heavy losses in net earnings for August reported by Union Pacific and Southern Pacific constituted a further disquietng influence. The weakness of St. Paul was conspicuous giving rise to talk of a possible divi- dend reduction.
 This stock, in common with Atchison and both the Wabash issues. fell to the low point of the year It was reported the St. Paul directors had decided upon radical steps of retrenchment. The weak ness in the Hartman stocks was att tributed in part to further reports that the baor dispute on those roads had reached critical point.
 With it's complexity of home affairs the market gave no heed toe the agree ment reached in the Moroccan dispute or to the other developments abroad. Lon- don traded more heavily in the market than for many months, taking perhaps 5000 shares of stock on balance.
 fe s,.f ftaa ,Nrta nf eli L. fications were reported. The steel trade reviews pointed out a further contrac- ton in business, due largely to the un- certainty in regard to the Steel corpora tion's affairs.
 Trading in bonds was again unusually heavy, although the total fell below yes terday's huge sum. Quotations weak ened after an initial showing of strength. The collapse of Wabash As affected active issues adversely.
 Total sales. par value, s6,0i5,000; United States bonds were unchanged on call