The sun., 1919-10-26
BEARS ON WILD TWO
HOUR RAMPAGE
Million Shares Sold Under In
fluencc Of Gloomy Indus
trial News.
NO REACTION AT CLOSE
Securities Crumble at Net
Losses Running Up to
Eleven Points.
NO REACTION AT CLOSE

wall street yesterday went through
m, OF the busiest and most trying two
hour sessions in its history. and with
ouners of stocks scrambling madly tow
ard the close to sell their holdings. the
nrices Of securities crumbled away bit
nv bit until at the close net losses Of
from small fractions to IL points had
been recorded. For the second time this
wear sales exceeded million shares In
Two hours and the final bell showed that
almost without exception the closing
rrIces were the lowest of the day. Con-
tracy TO the usual procedure in the stock
market, there was not the slightest evil
dence of rally of any sort all through
the morning.
Trading started off with the 10 o'clock
hell with the general list under slight
pressure. Market operators had come
into Wall Street with the belief that
the market was going to be depressed by
the extremely unfavorable Industrial
news reported In the morning papers
For a few minutes after the opening
there was a general disposition on the
part Of share owners to await develop
ments and see just exactly what the
course Of the market was going to De
While this kept them from selling stocks
for a time It also prevented them from
buying, so that when the professional
bears started in to depress the market
they found practically no buying power
Of sufficient strength to resist their on
slaughts.
The natural result of this condition
was still further receding Of market
prices and outside traders saw in the
story they read on the ticker tape
confirmation Of their most bearish pre-
dictions of the morning. That was
enough for them. They began to sell
stocks. Seeing that they had started an
avalanche of liquidation, the bears went
at their work with redoubled energy, and
It was not long before anybody and
everybody was selling stocks. The mar
ket broke in wild confusion and the quo
tations on the ticker began to run as
much as fifteen minutes behind the
actual transactions on the floor. Breaks
between sales in some OF the more active
stocks were as high as 2la or points.
whereas what little check was given
the downward movement was but re-
Fiction of profit taking on the part Of
some satisfied short
No particular class or group OF stocks
was under more pressure than another.
In no special department was there
more important drive than in any other.
The standard shares took an equal pro-
portion Of the decline with the more
highly speculative specialties. The latter,
perhaps, dropped further during the day.
but the proportion Of their loss was no
greater for during the past few weeks
their advance had been tremendous.
The biggest declines were registered
BY the more highly speculative ant
higher priced industrials and oil stocks
Crucible Steel, which has been a feature
Of the stock market since early in tht
summer with a sensational rise from be
low 100 to 26l, declined IL points to go
This figure represented a decline OF q
points from the top. but was higher thar
the point at which the sharp BE in Cru
chile was started on Wednesday. Tht
beginning of the bull drive In this stoci
last Wednesday morning was 23S. An
other stock which sold down sharply wal
Baldwin Locomotive, another speculative
favorite in which a large short interes
had been driven to cover in the last few
days by sensational moves upward
Baldwin lost more than Z points, closing
the day at 141 n. as against low figure
for the session of 1i1.
United States Steel, always the recog
rized leader of the standard industrial
leader, fell of more than points TO 6
low and closing figure of 105%. Beth
lehem Steel B declined AZ points ant
General Motors, too. slumped of pointi
from its closing figure on Friday after
noon Republic Iron and Steel, the sen
satlon of Wednesday afternoons market
closed at 1O5A, of points. and Lacka
wanna Steel, which furnished the fire
works on Thursday morning. fell NOR
than points to a,flnal mark Of SIN.
In the oil group. the heaviest liquida
ton was noticeable in Mexican Petro
leum. Pan-American Petroleum ant
Transport and Texas Company. All o
these had experienced very important
rises in the last week. and all were yer!
susceptible to pressure from without
Mexican Petroleum went down a total o
10 points, closing at 244. The loves
point at which this stock sold during
the morning was 2i1ls but short cover
ing In the latter part of the session ha'
The effect OF carrying it back az points
Texas Company fell Off points to low
and last price OF 302. while Pam meri
can slumped g. points to 1877.