Evening star., 1923-03-29
BEAR RAIDS SEND ?
! PRICES Downward
Professionals Find Public Is
| Not Buying StockS-RaIl
= Shares Weak.
ny STUART T.. WEST.

special Dispatch TO The Star.
NEW YORK, March 29.-The stock
market started in today with an ell
fort to continue the recovery OF the
two previous days. But when the
professional element detected stocks
coming out in quantity and realized
that there was no public in the mar
ket to help along any buying move
ment, they abruptly switched TO the
other side.
There was considerable talk. IL the
bull campaign is to be revived thd
it must be under different leadership.
One opinion was that United states
er, the market having shown It's IiS-
inclination to any longer foll""
stocks of the type of Baldwin Loco
motive, Studebaker, American can
and California Petroleum. All THESE
four were heavily sold and along with
American Wool and some of the olis'
notably Cosden, led the market do"h.
Chemical stocks Weak.
As an instance of the extremely
narrow and professional character OF
the trading, Republic Iron and Steel,
which had sold as high as 63as at the
outset, broke on running sales OF d
small quantity of stock from 62 = 10
595s, then on only two transactions
of a hundred shares each jumped back
TO 81. Selling of the Virginia Chemi-
cal issues was resumed after brlet
rally early in the day and the stocks
made new low records.
Railway shares were borne down
again under selling by people VINO
had bought expecting another bril-
liant showing in the February trafhc
statements and were greatly dlSap-
pointed by the heavy falling off in net
income as compared with January.
The Iron Products plan ought TO be
out within the next few days.
Review and Outlook.
NEW YORK, March 29.-In none
Of tho markets today was there any
movement that could be said TO be
of very deep Importance.
Stocks fiuctuated with considerable
uncertainty but the price changes
meant little except that the profess
Sionaf element We're rapidly shifting
from one side to the other. entirely
bewildered regarding the real drift
of things.
In the commodity markets the va
riations were small. the main point
being that just as in the case of
stocks the speculative spirit has
cooled off considerably from what ii
was month ago. French exchange
was higher and German exchange
lower. but in neither instance was the
movement large enough to be sig
nificant.
Public Out of Market.
The outstanding fact about the
stock market was that public interest
has for the time being completely
waned and the field left to the profess
SionalS. Outside business conditions
are altogether too favorable to war
rant any large downward movement
especially in view of the considera BILE
decline which prices have had from
their winters high points. On the
other hand the violent and artificial
speculation of three and four weeks
ago disguested the conservatives
and it will be hard to rearouse inter
est on the part of these two elements.
Gasoline Price Increase.
AS predicted ten days ago, an in
crease in the retail price of gasoline
has been announced in eastern terri
tory by a leading retiner. The. Stand
ard Oil of New Jersey today made
n cent a gallon had become effective
in certain sections of the southeast.
The advance had no effect in the oil
stocks today.
There was hardly an office in the
financial district today in which the
tip to buy steel common was not in
evidence. Nearly everybody in the
street had it long before the opening,
and the story in every case was the
same: "A big pool has just been
formed in steel common-one Of the
strongest pools which ever operated
In the stock-and it is in for a big
rise. Buy it." Thus ran the story,
and to make it seem authentic there
was quite bit of activity in steel.
OF course, there were those who
talked as if they had got the tip
from the real people" There was
one thing, however. that was miss
ing. The tip on steel usually carries
the report that big stock dividend
or sizable extra in cash is likely,
but neither of these things was men,
toned.
Afternoon Trading Drags.
Trading dragged along at a slow
pace during the afternoon. The pro-
fesSionals were still experimenting
with the short side and succeeded in
getting Baldwin Locomotive down be-
low 1873 and Studebaker below 122.
Steel common lost its early gain and
railway shares continued heavy, but
here and there was some weakness.
Undoubtedly it was fair to say that
the selling which carried the more
highly speculative issues off at one
time point to a point and a half was
no more important than the buying
which had put stocks up on Tuesday
and Wednesday. In both cases the
holders of stocks remaining impas-
sive alike to the appeal that the cam
paign for higher prices was about to
start up akain and to the suggestion
made in some quarters today that the
market was in for serious decline.
Copyright, 1891