Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-08-02
FLOOD OF SELLING
BREAKS STOCK LIST
Strong Tone Early Followed
by Bearish Activity That
BfinqS Serious Losses.

l
Brings Serious Losses.
BY STUART p. WEST.
| NEW YORK. August 2.-Ostensibly
the decision on railway rates was in
| line with the estimates which have
been current for some time past.
Actually the awards were more lib
eral than the business and financial
community in it's heart had dared eX-
pect. Railway shares opened under a
rush Of buying orders, up all the way
i from one to three points: The prin-
cipal advances were made in Union
Pacific, Reading. Southern Pacific.
New York Central, New Haven, Wa
bash preferred and Kansas City
Southern, but the whole railway list
was carried forward only in lesser
degrees.
Among the industrials Steel COM
mon started in a point higher. and
the equipment shares. like Baldwin
Locomotive, American Locomotive and
Haskell & Barker, were actively
| railway credit has been rehabilitated
the roads will have all the money
they need for the purchase of rolling
stock and that the future of the
equipment companies is accordingly
more than ever secure.
n
| This buying outburst at the opening
| did not outlast the first ten minutes.
Then there came veritable food of
selling. In the case of the rails this
selling was in the nature of profit TAX
ing by those who had bought recently
expecting the action of the Interstate
Commerce Commission. and partly it
was the unloading of stocks bought
some time ago, and in which tho holders
were seeing daylight after q long pull
In the case of the industrials it was
shrewdly planned bear drive more
daring than any hitherto attempted and
designed to Offset the good feeling
caused by the rate decision and at the
same time emphasize the seriousness Of
the Polish news
With the course of the forenoon the
alleged terms demanded by the soviet
government, as a condition for the arm
iSt1ce were made known and these were
so drastic that they left no room for
doubt regarding their rejection.
Steel Shares Hard Hit.
The bear drive conferred upon the
steel shares and was founded upon
the anticipation that the next au-
thentic accounts from the steel trade
would reveal the effects of the traffic
congestion and fuel shortage far
at any previous stage.
The remarkable part of this de-
cline was the ease with which prices
were driven down. showing not only
an absence of any support, but an
unpleasant dearth of that sort of
scale buying which ordinarily is to
be counted upon at such time.
On few transa ctioSs. which I'M
covered lot OF stop orders. Vana-
dunn Steel fell sheer s points. and,
regained subsequently, it gave short
sellers the utmost courage to attack
the other steels.'
One after another Bethlehem Steel
p, Republic and then Steel common
broke through their low points Of
February. which represented the for
mer bottom for the year.
The Street and the Rails.
There were brokers in. Wall street
this morning who were disposed to
look with favor on the rails and to
point to the announcement of the rate
increases as something that could not
be ignored.
These men appeared to be in the
minority. for after an opening bulge,
which carried the rails up a point to
three points and the induStrials just
about as much. there came a wave of
selling which carried prices down be-
low their starting points and in most
cases wiped out all OF the early gain.
One of the men who could see only
good i'll the rate increases said that
Wall street was apparently fast
asleep in regard to this constructive
action, and that it would be forced
to pay much higher prices for Its
rail stocks later on.
The street as a whole was agreed
that the railroads had got much more
than they expected. but that a lot of
people were simply waiting for the
rate increases to be announced to sell
al ;oI, hnNy H,od ~
for some time.
This move was taken advantage of
by the bear party. which proceeded to
sell the rails right from the opening.
Several Of the big commission houses,
anticipating a rally due to the good
news. urged their customers to take
the short side of the market and
also to tighten their long account.
bethlehem steel.
The weakness in Bethlehem Steel B
can be traced directly to what might
be called a collapse in the market for
steel used by the shipbuilding trade.
This market is reported to have taken
decided slump. and from a sellers
market it is now a buyers market,
with very little demand for the
product.
vanadium Steel.
Taking advantage of the absence
of the leading interests in Vanadium
Steel. bear operators made vicious
drive against the stock while the rest
of the market, was breaking shortly
after the opening.
With an opening sale of 76E. vana-
dunn eaSed off to "a, from which price
it cracked to IS between sales, 1900
shares changing hands at IS.
1t has been the rule recently not to
print stop orders on the tape. and
there were several hundred shares of
stock sold between "a and 6s which
did not show, most of these sales hav-
ing taken place at 10. From 68 the
stock rebounded to above 70, but had
another sinking spell later.
Curb Market.
The curb market today was just
market. For perhaps fifteen minutes
after the opening strength and ac-
tivity were displayed and some fair
advances were recorded in the higher
priced leaders, but thereafter many
stocks were reactionary and the tone
was uncertain.
General Asphalt, after a gain of a
point, met moderate selling orders
and fell several points. Swift Inter-
national was weak, and recessions
were recorded in the motor issues, in
GLIDING Gardner, Peerless and Cleve-
land. Retail Candy was easier on
small dealings.
For time all support in Chicago
Nipple seemed to have been with
drawn and that stock broke to a new
ings were made at concessions with
out bringing out a demand or support
ing orders from insiders. Indian
Packing though uuiet held fairly