The Washington herald., 1920-04-28
READING LEADS
SHARP DECLINE
Today's Drop in Late Trad
ing as Rapid as Yester-
days Advance.
OTHER STOCKS FOLLOW
Whele List Gives Way as
Public Buying Falls
OFF.
OTHER STOCKS FOLLOW

$Nes's York, April 27.-Today's
stock market seemed TO indicate
that the Reading decision was an
excellent medium for further stock
distribution, and also indicated that
those having stocks to distribute
made excellent headway.
SCfosfng with a burst Of strength,
yesterday, due to the Reading de-
cision, the stock market evidently
was well set to meet the thrush of
buying at the opening today. And
II may pc mentioned that this buy
ing was larger than even Wall.
Streeb expected. Consequently. quo
tationss Advanced sharply. and for a
umeN{he snort interests were wor-
rteda Tte nervoushess OF many of
these gentfemen, which resulted in
heaSss covering of commitments In
many issues, naturally aided the
upEkrd swing. However, Just ss
soopS rs the huge public buying
showed signs of weakening quota
ttpns dropped rapidly.
shorts Renew selling.
RTakIng advantage Of diminished
6gying- power noticeable, together
with the distinct unloading process
uhder way, the shorts again en-
Jared the selling side of the mar
het on a large scale in the early
EsternoQn.s with the result that the
whole market displayed signs Of
teppiing. For a time, however.
sqme resistance was shown, but 1t
Was not long before the entire list
gave ground. Strange as it seemed
ts many who rushed in and bought
Reading during the early trading
aEthe high. figure, this issue, which
led the markets advance yesterday.
was a leader in the decline in the
late trading today. After having
scared close to 96. an extreme de-
cline Of nearly ten points from this
figure rapidly took place and ex-
pected huge profits were soon
turned into actual losses II was
just another one of those occasions
for which an unsuspecting public
received invitations and accepted.
Baldwin Fight Interesting.
As predicted in this column yes
terday. the battle between the
shorts and Baldwin's market spon-
sOrs reached an interesting stage
today. After the shorts had fought
the stocks rise to above 120. they
doubled their efforts, with the re-
suit that the issue slid of rapidly.
Under lis, however, support was
again noticeable, although at the
close the Battle was still an even
break. The shorts in Baldwin are
substantial, and it is said that not
vithstandfng the strength of the
pool behind the issue 1t would not
be surprising il the shorts eventu-.
ally won out.
Banks Take Action.
The advance in call money rates
to 10 per cent today foEeshadewsth the.
first step toward the cutting down
of speculative loans, according to-
bank fne. sa thofftlss, The money
situa1eH.has reached an acute stage
in theSenmmsreiaI .centers OF the
country. and borrowers are finding
it a difficult problem to. obtain funds
on high-grade paper at extremely
high interest rates. In fact. many
large merchants have been forced
into retrenchment simply because
they cannot secure money to carry
on their business operations. II this
is the situation in the commercial
world, 1t would seem only natural
that Wall Street should also be fore
ed to retrench.