The New York herald., 1921-01-12
CRUCIBLE SHORTS
ROUGHLY HANDLED
Stock Advances More Than
Ten Points Above Preceding
Final Quotation.

The stock market traders on the short
of the worst punishments yesterday that
It has ever been the pleasure of the bull
operators to mete out. From the very
beginning of the session the screws were
applied in a manner which showed that
the short side of Crucible was anything
but healthy place to be in, and with
even greater momentum than il dis
played in Mondays big advance Cruel
BILE rose to more than 10 points higher
than its closing figure on Monday. While
offerings Of the stock were sufficiently
scanty to suggest heavy concentrating
in the hands of large interests. the Stock
Exchange authorities were not fearful
of q corner as in the case of Stutz Motor
last year.
After 12 o'clock several buying in
orders were executed on the exchange
for cash, and they served only to dis
hearten further the badly chastened
Crucible bears. The orders We're exc
cuted at figures ranging from a halt
point to point more than the regular
market price. thus taking cognizance
OF the extremely large loaning premium
demanded on the stock. At the close of
business on Monday the stock loaned az
n premium OF "a. which was considered
excessive At the opening yesterday.
however, the situation had become worse
rather than better and by noon shorts
wero bidding a premiums of u. with no
lenders in sight. Some borrowing trans
actions were even reported at full
point premium. making 1t cost the short
seller 500 to finance 100 shares of
Crucible short over night.
Even at those extravagant loaning
rates, however. there was not enough
stock available to cover all short sales.
and as q result there were some short
sellers who could not make delivery on
their sales. AS a result they were
bought in under the New York Stock
Exchange rule applying to such cases,
the purchaser to whom they had failed
on delivery being empowered to pur-
chase for cash at the market price the
stock on which delivery had been failed
and charge its cost to the seller who
had not made his delivery. Those buy
ing in transactions were all enough
above the market to include the loaning
premium. whatever it might be the
moment.
Following it's big advance of Monday.
81. up u point from Mondays close.
Almost Immediately the work of run
ming the stock up was begun. and in a
very short time it was sent across the
100 mark. At 1929 it paused for time
and then sold down a point or two. A
new buying squirt, however. soon came
into the market. helped along by the
buying in orders. which resulted In
new high of 1871 for the stock. The
closing quotation was LOG, off only / y
points from the high and up more than
points more than Mondays close.
Other stocks were lending last night
at substantial premiums as result Of
heavy short selling. Notable among
them were General Electric, United
Fruit, Sears-RoebuclS and one or two
other high priced issues. The short in
terest in some of them IL said to be ex-
ceedngly large, although 1t was as
serted at the close yesterday that many
had profited by the Crucible example
and had retreated from their position
before something OF the kind happened
TO them Many borrowed stocks were
returned in the loan crowd last night. in
dioating an important diminution of the
short interest.