The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-07-08
FINANCIAL NEWS
AND COMMENT
Railroad Shares Lead the Mar
kct in a Further GEN
eral Reaction.
TRADING MORE ACTIVE

Stocks moved further downward
by an increase In the volume of trad
ing to more than half a million shares.
Railroad issues provided the chief In
fuence in the unsettlcment of the list.
but In the industrial department there
were many substantial recesions In
prices, Foreign sales seemed again to
furnish the initiative. but some domes-
tic liquidation was excited. although a
good deal of the pressure seemed to he
of u purely bearish trading nature.
There were circumstance which con-
stituted a ready explanation of the mar
ket, but the most significant feature Of
the session was the fact that the aver
age closing quotation for representative
descriptions was the lowest in a month.
This level has been reached in a re-
action which began to manifest itself
last week. II was not until then that
prices moved off the plane on which
they had been s~luggishly holding most
of June. Underneath the market there
seemed to be q very fair buying de-
mand, which increased around the
lowest figures, and In the later after.
noon. when offerings slackene,, there
was a slight genera tans.
Ever since the announcement of the
British war loan securities have been
coming back TO us from London, in the
last few days the return including a
rather noticeable supply of stocks. par
ticularly leading railroad shares of the
sort which the British investor has
favored for years. Some selling has
been reported for the European con.
tinent. hut judging from the very modest
extent OF any upturn that has taken
place in the foreign exchanges Euro
pean sales Of our securities have prob
ably been overest.mated in Wall street
conjecture.
still an Increased Supply Of real
stocks has been noted. which has had
some softening effect on quoted values.
The whole market became somewhat
softer under II in the past week as the
disturbance of the position Of railroad
stocks was communicated to industrials.
The result was to make the list more
or less sensitive TO impressions me
consideration which Wall Street senti-
ment has been resisting and apparently
IfsAi'SSllfCH lttS Atth nlA-
Nokcd TO undertake experimental uper-
alton for at least a setback.
Additional inducements seemed to he
afforded yesterday by the unsatisfactory
posture of the wa, with its cO%rollary of
attempted ASSASSINATION here and dyua-
hitting exploits directed against passcn-
ger ships. II happened also that the
overnight dispatches from Germany,
making forescasts OF a stiff necked note
from Berlin to Washington. were dis
appointing enough to he a favorable set
ting for speculative attacks on prices.
The stock market community seemed to
forget that the European c-orrespoudents
who thus contradictei the tenor OF their
adNlces for the past fortnight hardly
commendct themselves TO belief now.
1t is possible, but hardly likely. tina.
the afternoon selling was of foreign ORR
gin. 1t is more probable that il came
from domestic trading sources n rep
resented bearish contracts. There were
In circulation rumors and arguments
such as are apt to characterize bear
ish activity, and much Of the selling was
not particularly impressive. Moreover,
under the circumstances. the market
might have been weaker than IL was
without causing surprise. At all times
a variety OF stocks displayed underly-
ing firmness. ST. Paul railway shares
were conspicuous in this class.
The principal weakness was i'm stocks
OF southern railroads, notably Illinois
Central. Louisville and Nashville and
Southern Railway preferred. A read
Justment of their prices could hardly
he looked upo as unexpected, and all
the more is this true when the UNI
promising cotton trade outlook is taken
into acc ant. Missouri Pacific decliued
10 a new low price on the publication
or the plan for the financial r~eorgani-
eaton OF the system. The programme
arranged evoked approving comment as
"A praise worthy effort of pioneering en-
terprlse in the field of sound recon-
struction. and hopes were expressed that
Il might be carried through on "A friendly
basis. At the same time there was "A
widely held opinion that recourse would
have to be had to receiyership because
OF the failure of voluntary action from
some of the security holders whose co-
operation is requested.
Crop weather advices wcrc unsa,is.
factory in the main. On the other hand
weekly reviews of basic industry re-
ported increasing production in steel
49,.