The Washington times., 1911-02-19

NEW YORK, Feb. 19.-Irregularity
| marked the stock market of the week.
The hesitatng and uncertain tone which
characterized the preceding session de-
| veIoped into a pronounced reaction
| after the resumption of business on
Tuesday, and this continued-broken by
| special movements such as occurred IN
Missouri Pacifc-until late on Friday,
| when the market again struck hard
spot and experienced a rapid recovery.
The final figures reflect variable net
changes with prices of active issues, as
a rule, showing rather general declines
while closing strong and above the low
est of the week.
So far as one may determine these
| things from outward appearances and
| from discussion with brokers, the mar
ket was highly professional both on the
| declines and on the recovery. One has
a choice of very many theories to ac-
| count for the recessions, which were
| accentuated somewhat by the reported
| contest for control" over the Missouri
| Pacific system on one occasion, and by
! the rumOred serious illness of William
Rockefeller on another, but the eXpla-
nation most widely accepted is that TO
which attention was directed last week,
! namely, that under cover of recent ad-
vanCes considerable stock had been dis
tributcd in the market Short traders,
detecting this selling, quite naturally
| worked for reactions.
Professional Tactics.
The talent" in Wall Street made
much of the fact that Thursdays sharp
do
crease in the volume of trading, from
which they argued that the market
wanted to go down" but 1t really does
not appear as though n quantative
theory on this Occa sion furnished any
basis for such conclusions. The dis
tributive movement, previously referred
to- was not in the nature of liquidation.
In all probability the larger transac-
tions reflected nothing more consider
able than bear operations, more agGres-
give than the Street has witnessed re-
Gently. Bear selling in the absence of
real hquida ion always brings it's own
correction-and it frequently carries a
penalty with it-for a market becomes
oversold speedily unless long stock is
running out, or can be forced out by
weakening an overeXtendcd bull ac-
count.
Dlstrbutive selling can he stopped on
the instant. If banking groups find they
have sold more stock than a market
can stand they stop selling, reclaim the
securities on the recession, and by A
little concentrated buying check bearish
activities, halt the decline, and proba bly,
influence short covering and a rally
There was no question about conCen-
| trated buying on Friday and Saturday
in United States Steel. Reading, and
| Union Pacific. The same issues which
led the declines led the rally and con-
tributed a large proportion Of the
weeks business. 1t Is quite obvious
that the entire public does not rush into
the market to sell three or four issues
and the next dav come trooping down
town TO buy the, ,self-same three or four
issues. Such is the work of profess
sionals, and its presence this week robs
the market of significance except as
professionalism may be significant.
No Cause for Liquidation.
If liquidation were running in the
market. as was the case year ago. tho
result of the selling movement early in
the week might have been different, but
when one takes a look over the Situa-
tion there really does not seem to be
much, If anything. to occasion liquida-
ton. The public is not buying, to be
sure, to any great extent, but, then,
there is nothing to cause 1t to sell
With easy money and a steady bond
market, declining commodity prices, an
improving international trade balance
the iron and steel industry growing
better foreshadowing improvement else
where, with railway earnings quite we'll
maintained and with various other
features of that kind to consider, there
is no general reason why genuine hold
ers of securities should sell them.
The investor who carried his stocks
and bonds through all the declines of
1910, when, on oCCa sions, there were
things to make him nervous. is not
likely to be disturbed by anything he
sees now. To be sure the decision in
the freight rate cases, the industrial
trust cases, and the nion-Southern Pa
cific merger case, are still to be rem
dered, but no one can talk to really i'm
portant men in Wall Street today with
out realizing that they are taking a very
much different view of these questions
now than they did a year ago. Then,
each weeks end and each Monday fore
noon brought shivers and quakes to
f1nanciers, but now one hears them say
ing, as Judge Lovett put it the other
day: Whatever happens they can't
kill US, and they can't put us out of
business entirely. The people must
have goods. and the railways have got
to operate.
Wall Streets Changed Sentiment.
All things considered, it is not strange
that Wall Street should take on an in
creasing feeling of confidence concern
ing the effects of the industrial trust
cases whatever they may be. So many
evil things were predicted of the market
which failed to materialize that many
persons, no doubt. have gotten into a
way of feeling that possibly the entire
situation was incorrectly appraised, or
that the market in some strange way
has received an immunity bath. There
have been none of the railway defaults
or dividend reductions so confidently
and repeatedly predicted by railway Of
ficials, no money panic resulting from
personal extravaganza, excessive spec
ulation in real estate, or purchases of
automobiles, and so on through a very
long catalogue of dire forebodings.
Stock prices were reduced, 20, 30, so,
even 20 points, and Wall Street Iuui-
dotad to a finish. vet If one looLrs- hocIy