Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-10-29
Sharp Upturn Occurs in Early
Afternoon-LeaderS Show
Substantial Gain.
FRANTIC LIQUIDATION
MARKS EARLY TRADING
Bankers Ease Credit Conditions
in Effort to Stem
Selling.
BY STANLEY w. PRENOSIL.
Associated Press Financial Editor.

NEW YORK, October 29.-Stock
prices turned sharply upward shortly
before 1880 pm. this afternoon after a
steady stream of liquidation in the early
trading had carried prices Of active is
uses down $40 to $40 a share. U. S.
Steel common rallied from $171 to
$186, General Electric from $214 to
$244 and American Can from $115 to
$119 share.
The early afternoon rebound reached
impressive proportions in some of the
speculative favorites Westinghouse Elec-
trio rallied from $100 to 124, Radio
from $26 to $39, Johns -Manville from
s109 to 1921, International Telephone
from $63, to $73, New York Central
from SITS to $185, American Telephone
from $2o7 to $2l6, and Atchison from
1921 to $229.50.
Sales of stock up to / pm. totaled
1852 900 shares, which compares with
the high record for a full session of
1884 800 shares, recorded last Thurs
day.
Margins Are Reduced.
In an apparent effort to avert a COM
plete decentralization Of the market, j.
P. Morgan u Co., announced shortly
after IL am, that the firm, in associa-
ton with other leading New York bank
ers, had reduced margin requirements
to only 25 per cent margin on their
street demand loans. Previous require
ments ranged as high as 40 per cent, so
that the reduction will materially facili-
tate the large commission houses in
financing their requirements during the
current crisis by releasing huge volume
of credit.
Previous to the bankers announce
ment, F. B. Keech & Co., one of the
large commission houses, announced
that it had reduced the margin require
ments OF its customers to Is per cent.
This is the first decrease in margin re-
quirements since the "bull' market
started on its wild rampage few years
ago.
Leading commission houses, antici-
pating wild opening, started business
seen Hooking into the Offices two hours
before the market opened, many Of
them having had only few hours sleep
after working far into the night to
clean up yesterdays 5000, ,000-share ses-
sion. Hundreds of customers, bearing
checks, cash and stock certificates to
sWeeten up their collateral, also were
seen in the large brokerage Offices. Tele-
phone facilities of the downtown ex-
changes were swamped with calls.
The nervous character Of the market
Is illustrated by the fluctuation of
United States Steel common, which
lied to 1872, dropped to 1917, rebounded
to 1875 and then dropped back to ITS.
Other leading stocks acted in q similar
manner.
Despite the enormous volume of trad
ing, the tickerS did not fall as far be-
hind as they did last Thursday. due
largely to the fact that the average VOL
ume Of individual quotations was much
larger. The New York Stock Exchange
ticker was "a minutes late at HAS pm.
and the curb ticker, which is slower in
operation, was AZ minutes late.
A fresh wave of selling around mid
day, which carried many of the leaders
S. share or more below their opening
quotations, indicated that the selling
storm had not fully subsidized, although
1t was apparent that strenuous efforts
were being made to maintain an orderly
market and prevent repetition of the
big drops between sales which occurred
in last Thursdays disheartening session.
Record Sales Volume.
The total stock sales in the first half
hour were 3,259,80 shares, or larger
than any previous full hours sales on
record
Heavy selling at the opening was
generally expected in banking circles.
Bankers who attended the conference
in the j. p. Morgan offices last evening
intimated that such selling probably
would represent the completion, at
least temporarily, of necessitous liquida-
ton. They pointed out that large in
vestment interests we're prepared to
enter the market with large. buying
orders, and this apparently is what
happened after the first deluge of SELL
ing had spent its force.
Wall Street has never witnessed such
a wild opening as today's. Practically
all of the leading issues opened with
blocks of 10000 to $4,000 shares, with
the average declines running close to
SIS share.
United States Steel common, after
opening fractionally lower at 1854.
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