New Britain herald., 1930-10-07
Leading Stock Shares Fall Down To Point Near Panic Levels Hit
 Last November In Liquidations
Few Lose More Than 3 Points, Although Peo- ple's Gas Drops 17 - U. s. Steel Skids to New 1880 Low - Steady Sell ing Perplexing.

New York, Oct. z tP - Leading shares were marked down close to the panic levels of last November in todays stock market.
 Large scale liquidation swept into the market after a shortlived rally in the first hour. Stocks were ab- sorbed in orderly manner, but bull leadership failed to appear, as sell ing orders for both long and short accounts kept the list steadily head ed downward into the afternoon, when trading slackened and recover ies of a point or so appeared here and there.
 Few shares lost more than 3 points, although Peoples Gas. a volatile issue. dropped IT. Allied Chemical, which lost IS yesterday, rallied points, then dropped II from the top. American Telephone sold off nearly to 19S, a new 1880 low, only one point above the bot tom of last November.
 |. s. Steel Drops
 L. s. Steel dropped more than ? to new 1880 low at 151 Ii only 4 above the November minimum. General Electric and Radio each fell more than points to record for the present shares. Eastman, American & Foreign Power, Amer ican Power & Light, and Macy de-. cllned to more than 4. Ii
 Although disclosure that stock exchange officials had questioned some members about bearish opera tions appeared to have been the basis for the opening rally, Wall street was inclined to interpret the action as indicating merely a deter imitation to make the bears play fair, rather than any indication that the exchange might consider placing restraints on short selling, which it has always defended as an essential factor in a free market.
 Concerned Over Practices
 It was said in brokerage circles that the exchange was concerned over such unethical practices as making use of knowledge of stop loss orders on specialists books as the basis of bar drives, or the spreading of malicious or destructive propaganda. It was recalled that the investigation of the short interest last November marked a turning point in the trend of the market, but failed to disclose any concerted bear drive.
 On the whole, the persistence of the selling was somewhat perplex- ing to brokerage circles. Although many of the so-called pivotal shares have held above " last November's lows, the general level of stocks has broken well below that level, as was shown by tabulation of 6S7 stocks made by commission house, which showed the average price the low est in two years.
 Some Support Appears
 In the early trading, a few large orders indicated that some efforts were being made to support the market, but the list soon gave way So far as could be learned, import ant banking interests were uncon- eerned over the liquidation. Brok- CTS felt that much of the selling was of a discouraged variety, since repeated efforts to rally the list have failed during the past six months Further investment buying was re- ported, but only on scale down.
 The days news failed to account for the action of the market. News from Brazil continued to be disturb ing, and transactions in Brazilian exchange were at standstill. Never the less, bankers did not believe the Brazilian situation would normally have any marked reflection in this stock market. Trade reports indi- cated that retail sales were in better volume since the cooler weather set in, and wholesale merchants said they were receiving numerous refill orders. Early estimates of this, weeks steel mill operations, how ever, still indicated. that there. may be a slight slowing Up this week. Call money held at ? per cent.