The Washington herald., 1920-02-11
STOCK VALUES
DROP LOWER
Favorable News Has No
Effect on Declining
Market.
MONEY AT 6 PER CENT.
Excellent Tonnage State
ment of Steel Corpora
ton Ignored.

New York. Feb. 1o,-with call
money being offered at per cent
and the United States Steel Corpo-
ration reporting an increase In un-
filled orders for the month OF jan
uary amounting to 1,020.07S tons.
stocks broke badly today and closed
the session with prices of the stan
dard issues down from three to hve
figures. specialties like General
Motors and American woolen ended
the day with net losses of fabout 10
points each. New low records for
this year were made in many direc-
tions.
At the opening quotations showed
fractional losses and for a time IL
looked as though the list would rally
when the call money rate eased on
to eight per cent and the Steel Cor
poration issued its favorable un-
filled tonnage statement. The mar
ket. however, lacked purchasing
power so that when the bears began
a drive in the early afternoon QUO
AdNlOHS Nltlutu tdSllg NAO
leaders of General Motors and Steel
Common. both of which touched new
bottoms for this year.
In the last hour there was a feeble
rally. but twenty minutes before the
clos te weakness developed in
al ms and prices were fading
aW the session closed. Stop
loss 5 were encountered on the
nrnnIaraNaI he
decline.
The volume OF business trans
acted increased as prices depre-
Ciated so that when the gong
sounded for the end of business
the ticker tape was about eight
minutes behind. Shortly before
the close call money was offered
at s per cent. but apparently no
attention was paid to the lowering
uf the rate.
The fact that the market de-
veloped weakness in the face OF
favorable news was disheartening
to those who have been predict
ing that lower money rates would
furnish the basis for a sharp re-
bound. Trading was considered
highly professional with the bearish
element dominating.
Announcement that the railway
employees would strike on February
" unless granted an increase in
wages had an unfavorable infiu-
ence on the market for railway
shares which has been thin for
weeks. Southern Pacific. which is
considered most favorably among
the rails because Of its equities IN
oil lands. lost nearly three points
and sold at a new low for this
movement. Union Pacific was also
offered in liberal volume at the
expense of quotations and closed
with a net loss OF nearly four
points. Considering that Texas
and Pacific sells for a low num-
Der OF dollars per share its drop
of four points emphasized the
weak technical positions of the
rails.
Railway executives state that
preparations have been made for the
return of the roads to private own
ership on March first, but even with
the passage of the proposed new
railroad legislation there are prom
inent bankers who believe that this
will not prevent a number of re-
Ceiverships and bankruptcies that
are expected.
Large houses report steady liqui-
dation of securities by Europeans,
especially British investors. The
securities include bonds and stocks
IF railroads. industrials and some
public utilities.
Large commission houses report
that their customers are stubborn
" holding on to their securities.
Calls for additional margin are fol-
lowed by the receipt of large
amounts of funds by these broker
age houses. One firm today received
nearly S750.000 in cash in response
{" call made on some customers.
There is also some cash buying of
stocks. but this is on a light scale.
Middle States Oil was strong most
of the day and was one Of the few
stocks to close above the previous
final quotation.