Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 138, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 December 1904 — BIG BREAK IN STOCKS [ARTICLE]

BIG BREAK IN STOCKS

Price* of Securities Drop from Two to Ten Points. Wall street Thursday passed through the worst panic it had seen since the terrible crash of May 9, 1901—the day of the culmination of flic Northern Pacific “corner.” Prices dropped from sto 10 or 11 points. Stocks of all descriptions were sacrificed, tlie good with the bad, and the losses in botli classes were on about an equal average. Rumors of distress in the Wall street district among prominent houses were plentiful. But in all cases they were strenuously denied, and, until late in the afternoon, no reports of failures, or of difficulties in passing accounts through .the stock exchange clearing house had been made. ' Amalgamated Copper was the leader in the decline which brought on tlie panie. For three days it had been breaking in a sensational manner. Colorado Fuel and Iron, another property controlled by the Rockefeller Standard Oil millions, suffered a break even greater than that of Amalgamated Copper. Sugar, the Steels, Union Pacific, St. Paul and other standard rails were among the heavy sufferers also.. The panic began in New York when the suspension of W. E. Badetail of tlie Consolidated Exchange was announced. The suspension came after the weakness had been strenuously contested by supporting orders. The fluctuations were violent and frequent. Toward the end of the first hour support seemed to be abandoned and prices slumped throughout. Calling for additional margins by alarmed brokers precipitated heavy liquidation in all directions.