The Washington herald., 1920-04-27
READING LEADS
UPWARD SWING
Runs Away from Rest Of
Market on Supreme
Court Decision.
OTHER RAILS FOLLOW
Southern Pacific and Balti-
more & Ohio Display
Renewed Life.
OTHER RAILS FOLLOW

New York, April 2s.-Ths su-
preme Court decision divorcing
Reading from its coal land holdings
was the backbone Of the markets
strength today.
Showing signs Of strength at the
opening, most issues displayed a
sagging tendency thereafter until
the decision was announced. Even
then the whole market seemed to
stagger for several minutes, at
least until the Importance Of the
decision made itself felt. Reading.
the center of attraction, displayed
signs OF weakness directly after
the decision, and then a rush of
buying orders forced the quotation
up to IS in a comparatively short
time. For the next fifteen minutes
the stock was extremely active be-
tween 81 and IS, but seemed to meet
with an enormous amount OF stock
at SAY. AS soon as this stock was
out of the way, however, Readings
price scared.
Other Rails Follow.
Naturally, some of the other rail
Issues. especially those interested in
oil. coal and various properties not
directly connected with railroadins,
and which may be forced to follow
Readings course in a process of
elimination. displayed distinct
strength. although their net gains
were unimportant compared with
Readings extreme rise. Southern
Pacific, about which there has been
so much discussion Jas to the possi-
Bile benefits to shareholders, should
this company be forced to dispose
OF its oil lands, was the first rail-
road issue to follow Reading. Then
came Baltimore & Ohio. which has
been practically dormant for some
time past In the case of Baltimore
& Ohio's strength, however, it may
be mentioned that this company is a
large holder of Reading stock. Nat
urally. 1t will come in for its share
Of the long expected Reading
melon"
W0oIen Runs wild.
American Wooden stock jumped
from 119 to 130 within fifteen
minutes When it reached the top
figure 1t displayed a rapid slide
back to 126. Buying again appeared
at this figure and the upward trend
continued. IL was one of those wild
speciality moves so characteristic
of an uncontrolled market, and nat
urally was not looked upon IA
Vorably by shrewd market obser-
vers- The talk on Wooden is that
another Liberty Bond melon will
shortly be announced However.
todays gymnastics seemed to be
the result Of an organized move to
run In the shorts more than any
thing else II is because of justl
such moves that the New York
stock Exchange has Of late come
In for so much criticism. and it
would seem time that some action
was taken to stop manipulation Of
this character.
Baldwin shows Life.
Baldwin dipped in both directions
rather sharply today, closing with
a burst OF strength The shorts In
Baldwin are large. That goes
out saying; and there is reason to
look for an organized fight between
BaLdwin's market sponsors and
these short interests in the not dis
tant future. In fact Wall Street is
OF the opinion that the result OF
this expected battle will find Bald
Nih at very much higher figure
than now prevailing. Inasmuch as
Baldwin has shown an enormous
drop of late. there would seem
some foundation for this predic-
tion. As the trader puts it, Bald
win might do anything"
Caution stiI the Keynote.
notwithstanding seemingly re-
newed activity on the upward side
OF the market by many pooling in
terests, and the extreme bullishness
OF many of Wall Streets news or
gans, caution is still the keynote in
the placing of all commitments on
the long side. Conservative com
mission houses are maintaining an
attitude almost the opposite of bull
ishness. While they are of the opin-
Ion that the market might possibly
maintain fair semblance Of
strength for the next few days. it
Is their firm belief that the process
OF liquidation is still very pronounc-
ed in spots. This was distinctly no.
ticeable in many issues during to-
days upward swing. In some in
stances more weakness than
strength was shown. They seemed
to meet with unlimited supplies of
stock whenever a certain figure was
reache6