Douglas daily dispatch., 1926-02-26


Despite a large quota of favorable
trade news, stock prices developed
a pronounced reactionary tendency
in today's stock market. An extreme
break of over 20 points to 3531a in
General Electric, based on reports
that directors would take no special
dividend action at their meeting in
Boston tomorrow, started a wave of
selling in the afternoon which scared
scores of other issues down 10
points from their earlier high levels.
Previously, the market had shown a
Ftendency to rally under the leader
ship of the high grade industrials
The market apparently disregarded
such constructive items as the sen.
ate's passage of the. tax BILL ex-
panding steel operations, increasing
inquiries for railroad equipment, rails
ing of the annual dividend of Under
wood Typewriter from SO to 81 and
publication of unusually favorable
1925 earnings statements by the Tex
as company and n-American Pc
troIeum and Transport company
Continued lack of public interest
in the market was reported by the
leading commission houses. Rela-
lively stiff money rates and a ten
dency to defer commitments until the
tax payments are out Of the way also
had a restrictive influence on oper-
ations for the rise. Indications that
the buying power of the pools had
been substantially reduced by the
stocks absorbed on the recent de-
cline were seen in the way in which
bids were withdrawn in several Is
sues when large blocks of stocks
We're pressed for sale.
United States Steel common cele-
; brated it's silver anniversary by
by closing 3s lower at 12714 although
lit had touched 1884 earlier in the
Esession on the announcement that
mill operations were now 80 per cent
of capacity, the highest rate this
year. American Can opened at 33S,
advanced to 341 and then broke to
331 for net loss of AZ points on the
day. At intervals special buying
appeared in some of the motor shares
on expectations of large earnings
for the first quarter. Hudson was
bid up to 121as but dropped back
later to 117%, off u on the day.
Equipments displayed a firm tone
due to active short covering on re-
ports that some of the big trunk
lines were in the market for large
quantities of rolling stock
Selling pressure was particularly
i effective in the Industrial group,
against such stocks as Allied Chem
| ical, Coca Cola, Colorado Fuel, Con-
Isolidated Gas, Dupont Fairbanks
Morse, Mathieson All1ali Pacific
Coast r. S, Schultz and Sloss Shelf
field, all of which We're hammered
down to 10 points.
Selling of the rails was accen-
tuated by speculative disappointment
over the failure of the interstate
commerce commission to hand down
the "Nickel Plate merger decision
yesterday, as had been widely pre-
dicted in brokerage circles. Nickel
Plate common broke points to
t165 Atlantic Coast Line and Texts
kpoints lower.
With the exception of coffee fu-
lures, which advanced 1S to ii points,
l-all the principal commodity markets
lost ground. Wheat dropped about
LIZ cents, with considerable uneaSl-
ness developing among traders as
result of agitation to restrict trad
ing to 100000 bushels a day. oct
ton showed net declines of 10 to 26
points on reports that Southern cot
ton was being shipped mere for de-
livery on March contracts. The SUI
gar market displayed an easier UNI
dertone.
Brokers reported. Aowever, that
there was a marked increase in the
supply of loanable funds. Time
money and commercial paper rates
were unchanged.
Further irregularities developed in
the foreign exchange market. De-
mand sterling Slipped off to $4.S59s.
the lowest price in about six weeks
and French francs yielded g few
points to around 363 Norwegian
krone showed another outburst of
strc myth, scoring 2S points to 2167
japanese yen continued their down
ward movement by dropping 7-16 of
a cont to 45.42 cents.