Douglas daily dispatch., 1927-03-03

NEW YORK, March 2 (R)-The SELL
ing movement in today's stock market
gathered considerable momentum, def
initely checking the upward swing
which has been under way, with few
Interruptions, for five weeks. Spec
ulators for the advance succeeded in
pushing up about a dozen issues to
new high levels in the early trading,
but the cut from Sc to 50 in the
Stromberg carburetor dividend and re-
current reports of the serious illness
of George f. Baker, S7year-old cap
italist, caused heavy selling for both
accounts Final quotations disclosed
a long list of net declines ranging from
| / to 12 points and fairly we'll distrib-
uted among the leading rails and in
dustrials.
Lowering of the call money rate to
per cent, coupled with fresh import
tations of Canadian gold, testified to
the ease of the credit situation, but
failed to arouse much bullish enthus-
iasm at this juncture. Weekly steel
trade reviews also reported some i'm
provement but this also fell flat as
| market factor. Directors of the Pere
Marquette declared an extra cash div
| idend of So, and are unofficially un-
derstood to have agreed upon 20 per
| cent stock dividend, with the result
! that the stock jumped 5 " points, but
| it lost nearly half it's gain. After
the market closed, directors of the ST.
Louis, San Francisco announced an ex-
ira cash dividend of 25 cents share,
| in addition to the regular quarterly
/ payment of Sits. Wall street had
been looking for an increase in the
annual rate to $S.
! Selling of the railroad shares also
| was influenced by unconfirmed pre-
dictions of an early adverse decision
! to the railroads in the ST. Louis and
| O'Fallon case, which involves the fa-
nous "recapture clause" whereby pros
porous roads are required to turn over
portion of their excess earnings" to
aid in the rehabilitation of the weaker
! systems This case was heard by the
| commission early in July, and to date
there have been no indications as to
when a decision might be expected.
Stromberg Carburetor broke from 81
| to 4OA, the lowest price in five years,
/ on the announcement of the dividend
| action This also started an aggres-
/ sive selling movement against the au-
tomotive shares, starting with Gen
eral Motors which was hammered
down 5 points and rallied l, and then
! extending to such issues as Mack
Truck, Nash and several others.
Baldwin took a sharp nose-dive from
1877 to 1854, but snapped back to 1881,
off GM net Net recessions of 8 points
! or more also took place in Allied Chem-
| ical, American Smelling, Dupont, Hous-
ton OIL international Harvester, Allis
Chalmers, Case Thrashing Collins and
Aitkman, Matheson Alkali, U. S. Cast
/ Iron Pipe, Colorado Fuel Reading, Wa
bash, Atlantic Coast Line, Canadian
Pacific, Lackawanna, Hudson and Man
haitian, Norfolk & Western, Westing-
house Air Brake and Wheeling and
Lake Erie.
Call money renewed at per cent
/ and held steady at that figure all day.
! Time money was slightly firmer, being
quoted at AS to A. instead of Az to
4a. Prime commercial paper was un-
changed The principal commodity
markets drifted lower.
Foreign exchanges showed little
change, with demand sterling quoted
around $4.S4%, and French francs just
above $50 cents.