Evening star., 1935-11-17
Shelving of North American
Plan Causes $140 Drop
in Bid Overnight.
SHARP PRICE VARIATIONS
FAIL TO BRING SALES
Efforts to Draw Buyers and Sellers
Together Futile-Quotations
Now Ex-Dividend.
BY EDWARD C. STONE.

Following an abandonment by the
North American Co. of its plan to
divest itself of controlling interest in
the Washington Railway & Electric
Co., bids for the w. R. & E. common
stock took a sharp tumble on the
Washington Stock Exchange yester-
day.
The bid dropped $40 share over
night from Fridays close at $640 a
share to $500. At the same time the
asked price was lowered to $3.50
share from Fridays quoted figure of
$675. Both bid and asked prices were
ex-dividend, any one selling the stock
now retaining the SO dividend de-
clared few days ago by the WASH
ington Railway & Electric directors.
In spite of the great variation in
bid and asked prices on the Washing
ton exchange in the past 10 days,
no sales have been recorded. The
spread has been too wide between the
two quotations. Several times it
looked as if buyers and sellers would
get together, but each effort failed.
With the North American Co. owning
1000 shares of w. r. & E. common,
there are only about 5000 shares in
other hands and for long time the
stock has been tightly held.
Quotations in Wild Rise.
The original announcement that the
North American Co. proposed to issue
1,625,000 participating shares against
the $1,000 shares of Railway & Elec-
trio common and sell them through an
underwriting group at maximum
price of $50 share brought the stock
on the Washington exchange instant
ly into the limelight. AS shown in
the registration statement filed with
the Securities and Exchange Commis-
sion, the transactions would have in
volved more than S48, 1000, 900, of which
the North American Co. would have
received more than $42 100000 had the
sale been consummated at the indi-
Gated maximum prices of $50 per
share for the new stock.
Holders of w. r. e. E. common
stock in Washington quickly figured
that Is participating shares for each
share of the old stock meant that the
present shares would be worth $3.50
each. For weeks the common stock
had been quoted on the Washington
Exchange at 1925 a share bid with
none offered at any price. One day
the bid moved to $3.50 share, no par
ticular significance being attached to
the higher quotation.
When the registration announce
ment came from the Securities Ex.
change Commission, the bid jumped
from $500 to 5000 share, the same
day an asked price of $500 share
being chalked up on the exchange
board. The bid went to $3.50 and
then to a high mark of $3.50. The
asked price did not climb above $500
and soon started downward After
only one day at that figure, it dropped
to $3.50, where it remained for several
days.
Railway common stood last Monday
at $500 bid and $3.50 asked. Tuesday
it dropped to $675 bid and s725 asked.
The next day the bid was lowered to
$3.50, asked price unchanged On
Thursday there were hints IN the
financial district that the North
American Co. might withdraw the en-
tire proposal because of new Po-
cided upon by the Public Utilities
Commission at the District Building.
The bid dropped to S640 for the stock
and the asked price to $710.
The bid was unchanged Friday but
the asked price came down to S675 a
share. Yesterdays session. the first
since definite announcement of the
registration withdrawal, found $500 |
bid and only $3.50 asked. 1t was a
strange Saturday session in which |
chief interest centered in stock in
which there were no sales rather than
in bonds which registered all the trad
ing. incidentally, not single sale
has been recorded in w. r. & E. COM
mon since the bid and asked furry
started two weeks ago. Holders of
the stock yesterday said they believed
the North American Co. had only sus-
pended the new issue idea and had not
given it up entirely.
Actual business on the Washington
Exchange yesterday included sale of
20 shares of Riggs National Bank COM
mon stock at 210, unchanged. In the
bond division, $1,000 City & Suburban
IS changed ownership at 80 and ST 900
Capital Traction SIS appeared on the
board at 95al, price at which several
recent sales have been completed.
From New York came dispatches
yesterday stating that Mergenthaler
Linotype Co. common share earnings
for the year ending September 80
=:ce IA cents a share VS.. 80 cents
last year. Mergenthaler stock is listed
on the exchange here and was recently |
quite active at higher prices. The
last sale was recorded at "a. Yester-
days close saw 3O1s bid and SO asked.
Department Stores Sales OF.
Department store sales in Washing
ton decreased Is per cent during the
week from the preceding week and
were per cent less than the same |
week in 1884, the Commerce Depart
ment reported yesterday. The weather
was assigned as the cause Of the let
down. Merchants, however, expressed
the opinion that the change to cooler
weather would quickly make up for
the decrease.
While bank clearings dropped II per
cent from the previous week, they
were 28.5 per cent higher than in the
same week last year, the report said.
Building permits were lower than the
previous week, but were twice as large
as in the corresponding week year
ago. The number of visitors in the
Capital were practically the same as in
the previous week, but well ahead of
|1st year. :