New-York tribune., 1920-11-20
Heavy Selling
Sets Lows i'm
Broad Market
Transactions Greater Than
at Any Previous Day in
Present Slump; 1l2 In.
dustrial Stocks at Bottom

Since Election Day the trend Of So
curities has been persistently down
ward, but yesterday the selling was
on broader scale than any previous
day since the process Of fast writing
down the market value Of stocks began.
The list of securities tossed into the
market place was unusually long and
1,490,900 transactions were recorded.
After the final sale Of the day had
been contaminated 112 industrial stocks
were down to the lowest level attained
thus far this year. To inquiries re-
garding the minimum quotation for the
year for given stock it is almost
safe in these days Of unrcstrained
bearishness to refer to the last trans
sentative industrial stocks tumblcd
from 1858 to 1908 and that Of twenty
rails fell from 66.75 to 6540.
In the commodity markets the same
unchecker impulses to sell dominated
the trend of quotations, which estab-
lished new low record for the year
for cotton, wheat and corn. In the
corn mart December contracts were
quoted as low as 66M cents bushel,
which marks return to below the pre-
war level. This figure is cents lower
than obtained on November 10, 1913, to
which day one has to return to make
comparisons with current quotations.
In cotton, at the ebb of prices for the
day, there was loss of about l cent
compared with quotations of the previ-
Gus day, and January futures were
quoted at 1858 cents pound. In the
wheat markets December was sold Mt
Sill bushcl and March at $l62h a
bushel. In the comm odity markets
heavy offerings were made from the ag-
ricultural districts.
The decline in securities was in re-
sponse to a coalition Of heavy liuui-
dation and further short selling to
profit from the downward slump.
in the face Of call money rates
varying from 7 to 6 per cent. State
ments by Judge Ebert H. Gary and
James A. Campbell, president Of the
Youngstown Sheet and Tube, one of
the principal independent steel com
panies, reflected the situation in that
barometric industry. Although not in
trinsically bearish, Mr.. Gary's remarks,
IN which he announced that the present
steel prices would be maintained al
though an increase in costs merits a
rise, were used as q reason for heavily
selling the steel stocks, particularly
those of the independent companies,
whose quotations on the metal have
been above those quoted by the cor
poration. Mr.. Campbeu's opinions,
which were made public late IN Che day,
warned that eventually a wage cut was
coming. and gave a rather unfavorablc
picture Of the the present state of the
Industry. Other industrial stocks re-
sponded to the weakness Of the steels
and shared their losses. In the morn
ing, before the announcement of the
Steel Corporation was made, the tone
of the industrials, although irregular,
was fairly steady, and railroad securi-
ties were firmer on the basis of the
Interstate Commerce Commission rate
decision overriding the ruling Of the
New York State body, which refused to
grant an increase on intrastate traffic
in this commonwealth.
After previous weakness there was a
martial recovery in the European ex-
changes, which showed net gains for
the day.