The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-10-15
FINANCIAL NEWS
AND COMMENT
Sudden Last Hour Jump to Is
Per Cent. in Money Causes
Prices to Break.
HITS RECENT FAvORITEs
Steels Are Heavy but Some Of
the Specialties Hold
Up Well.
HITS RECENT FAvORITEs

Wall Street went through by far the
worst day yesterday which It has ex-
perienoed since the new rising move
ment began. and undoubtedly would
! have emerged fairly satisfactorily In
spite Of the damper thrown on specula-
ton by the overnight news developments
had 1t not been for the money market In
the last hour the market had had q
very sharp break at the outset, with the
| prices of leading speculative favorites
| or anywhere from one to as much as
| ten points, and was In the process OF
| recovering very largely what II had
| lost as a result OF the unfavorablo Inn
| preston created by the news. when the
money market jumped to 10 per cent. in
| the last hour, which Is equal to the
highest rate touched this year. and trad
ers were given another opportunity to
bring about Just what they had attempt
ed to do earlier in the day. The break
was not as sharp as might have been
expected, but 1t was effective neverthe-
less in checking the aspirations OF those
who have refused to consider the unfa-
vorable features of the present under
lying situation.
The most unsatisfactory thing of all,
NO far as the days news was concerned,
dent to show some Improvement over
the extended holiday. This led to all
sorts of rumors, which were very dam
aging from the stock market point OF
view. In the second place, there was
"a naked change in sentiment concerning
the steel strike. Whereas Wall Street
had been working along the line here
tofore that the steel strike was all over
hut the shouting. 1t became apparent
yesterday, on account OF intimations
from Washington, that there was a
grave possibility Of intervention on the
part of the Government. All OF this
might have been overlooked after all
had Il not been for the fact that money
rates continued high, for there was no
| sign of any forced liquidation In the
| selling which resulted at the outset. The
whole thing had been due to professional
| selling, and this fact was emphasized
very strongly by the manner in wn,on
| stocks came back around midday. Then
| in the final period money again rose 70
| 15 per cent and the market completely
| reversed itself, although the shorts were
not able to make much more progress
| than at the outset Never theless, the
| selling had a marked effect on sentiment.
| which was mistakably bearish at the
| closing.
Naturally the most important weak
| ness was In the steel shares. Those Is
! sues did not break to the same extent
/ as some of the high priced specialues,
whose advances recently have been most
sensational. but their heaviness was un-
doubtedly very disappointing to those
who had expected the market to 90 con-
siderably better this week on account
| of the very favorable showing made on
SATURDAY. Those who had taken THIS
view, however, had failed TO take INTO
consideration the possibility OF hign
| money rates again. and the warnings
put out recently against further expan-
sion in the stock market. On the other
hand, however, the stock market was not
entirely one sided. There were GOOD
many strong spots among the Special
| ties. which were the first to recover
from the professional attack at the out
| set Among the most prominent or
these were Industrial Alcohol. Chandler
Motors and Mexican Petroleum. Not
all of the gains recorded by these Issues
were maintained to the closing. but they
! did much better than the average run OF
| listed securities. There was no speciai
| explanation of the high money rates, but
wall Street had been given warning OF
this on Saturday by the expansion IN the
loan item. This item had shown much
larger expansion of Stock Exchange op-
| erations than those who were In favor OF
higher prices had been willing to admit,
and when the rate was advanced
sharply again in the last hour 1t did not
come as a surprise to close observers
Bankers were unwilling to make any
predictions at the closing regarding the
money situation, but none of them
viewed the situation very fnvorably
The foreign exchange market was again
featured by weakness Of the principal
rates. Sterling went lower, and the
weakness here had a sentimental effect
on nearly all other important rates.