Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-04-01
MARKET STEAD|ES
AFTER SHARP DROP
Heavy Selling Forces Quota
tons Down During Morn
ing Hours.
BY GEORGE T. HUGHES.
Special Dispatch to The Star.


Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, April 1.-Liquidation
of the most urgent sort flooded the
stock market on the resumption of
business today, bringing about acute
weakness and sweeping declines. For
two hours the violent downward move
ment continued. Then around noon the
list steadied-not much, however, above
the lows.
In one respect today's break was
radically different from that OF Tuesday
last. Then the weakness brought out
continuously lower blocks Of stock and
the tape fell far behind the market.
Sales Volume Less.
Today the volume was less than that
of Thursday, the last preceding business
day. In the first half hour 683,500
shares changed hands, against 400
at the same time Thursday. BY noon
the tape was even with the market and
was printing volume Of sales.
The character of the decline can be
illustrated by taking a few leading
stocks. General Electric at 227k was
down over 10 points. American Tele-
phone & Telegraph at 215 was on 3
points. New York Central under 100
was down more than points. All these
are standard investment stocks, not m
fated specialties, but they gave way
almost as readily as did the industr1als,
which have led the long advance.
Radio, opening down over points on
a block Of 10000 shares at 102, before
noontime, sold under So for net loss OF
over 10 points. International Telephone
& Telegraph, which had been so strong
Ia al 0t
sold during the forenoon at 25834 for a
loss of over Is points. Copper stocks
slumped badly. Anaconda. around $50,
was down some points and the others
not quite so much.
OF course it was the credit situation
which was the disturbing element. 1t
was complicated, however, by politics. 1t
was bad enough to be terroriZed by a
prospect of rise in the bank rate, by
high charges for call money and all the
other familiar phenomena Of the money
outlook; but when to all this was added
the threat of a congressional investiga-
ton and of a revision of the Federal
Reserve law it was too much for over
wrought nerves.
Cali money renewed at 10 per cent
against the per cent rate that ruled
at the close Thursday. Funds were in
scant supply today and the demand was
strong. Shortly after noon the charge
was raised to IL per cent.
Speculative Issues Suffer.
More or less all kinds and grades of
stocks suffered when the selling was
at its height. The largest losses were
recorded in the speculatively popular
issues. Nevertheless the oils made better
resistance than the rest of the list.
Houston Oil and Standard Oil of Cali
fornia we're down sharply, but they had
been bid up the most. Shell Union was
steady around the preceding close.
The rails did not appear on the tape
except at intervals. Practically all of
them. however, were down substantially
The early afternoon rally was helped
along by short covering. Bearishly in
clined professionals had been treated
too roughly in the recovery that fol-
lowed Tuesdays break to neglect cash.
ing in on profits today when profits
were available. The falling of in
volume, too, was hard to explain on the
theory that the decline was to be ex-
tended. When it was seen at noon that
the turnover was 2032,6 shares.
against 2,839,400 shares at noon last
Tuesday, it brought about a certain
amount of repurchasing by the shorts.