New-York tribune., 1920-11-21
Less Pressure
On Stocks as
Zone Improves
continued Liquidation
Causes More New Lows,
but Tendency to Cover
Is More Pronounced

Signs appeared In Wall Street.,
speculative security market Yesterday
OF less urSen. desire on the part Of
noIoers OF stocks to sell. AS was nat
Urai after two or three Gays of violent
oeclhes IN prices, the market con-
,'nued IN very unsettled condition,
but the pressure Of liouidation did not
seem so heavy and it was offset to
some extent by purchases for the short
account which has been much extended
on the current decline.
mere was enough liquidation in the
oflef two hours of trading at the ex-
cnange. however, to force many of the
speculative favorites into new low
ground, causing substantial declines
rom the closing levels of the day be-
became somewhat steadier just before
the close when it was apparent that
1are OF TIE short interest was being
retired. While no important construc-
tive news developments are looked for
over Sunday, the fact is that many of
the professional traders aligned on the
GEAR side have been looking for tech
neal rally for several days and many
of them yesterday did not care to take
nlng open over the weekend.
Sentiment in the financial district
vas not nearly SO pessmistic as on
Friday. For one thing the wild and
Vnfounded rumors of Friday which
were so disturbing did not develop in
the way predicted. In fact nothing
happened out of the ordinary routine
so that holders of stocks became more
hopeful. Most of the heavy selling in
the first hour which drove prices down
ward again with considerable violence
-1aP i'd %ol
forced liquidation of weakened margin
accounts which could no longer be pro-
tected.
On the early break Steel common
came within q small fraction of its low
record OF Friday, 80, but when prices
rallied at the close 1t recovered to SOS.
: ugar shares were depressed by the
announ cement that the American Sugar
Refining Company had closed all of its
refincries. Crucible Steel, which has
shown lack of support since early in
it broke to new low of 85, with only
feeble rally, closing nearly four
points off.
One Of the best features Of the mar
ket was the comeback in the rails.
These stocks had succumbed to the
general selling wave on Thursday and
Friday, but yesterday they offered
sturdy resistance to pressure and
emerged showing good gains. Northern
Pacific, for example, rose three points,
while Chesapeake & Ohio, Southern
Pacific, Union Pacific, Chicago 8. North
western and other stocks in the same
class rebounded one to two points and
more.
Calmer conditions prevailed in the
commodity markets, while the foreign
exchange market was steady. An
nouncement was made Of the shipping
Of S2,7GO,0 900 more gold from London.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New
York made much better showing in
its weekly statement, disclosing the i'm
portant fact that member banks in this
district had reduced their borrowings
at the central institution by approx
mately $5OO0OO00. The bank also in
creased its gold holdings, with the re-
suit that it was able to show ratio Of
total reserves to deposit and Federal
reserve note liabilities combined Of DO
per cent, against 38.8 per cent the week
before New York Clearing House
banks lost approximately S19,ooo,000
in surplus reserves. but contracted
their loans S15,2420O0