WALL STREET CRASH

Greymouth Evening Star, 5 March 1926, Page 5

WALL STREET CRASH

HUGE SUMS LOST. (Reuter,) NEW YORK, March o. Stocks experienced further severe breaks yesterday in the heaviest trading in the history of the Stock Exchange. Offerings were thrown on to the market in Huge volume, apparently regardless of price. The early afternoon dealings witnessed a repetition of the demoralisation which occurred during Alonday’s last hour of trading. A considerable improvement was noticeable in the action of the general list yesterday morning, probably as the result of concerted efforts to support the market, but later on a flood of selling orders poured in. It was obvious that the banking interests were buying only on a small scale, thus giving the “bears” a free hand to push the decline, which they did with enthusiastic aggressiveness, resulting in a heavy drop, with tumultuous scenes at the close. The sales totalled 3,837,700 shares, thus breaking all records, the previous highest being 3,427,100 shares, established on November 10, 1925. AVild disorder prevailed on the floor of the Exchange when the closing gong sounded with the final quotations, the lowest of the day, stocks having . broken from one to thirtythree points. LATER. Breaking all existing records for volume in the history of the JNew York Stock Exchange, AVednesday’s market crashed in the last hour of trading, despite strong bank support for a'number of high grade industrial and railroad stocks. It is estimated that the paper losses from the first big smash “are more than one billion dollars. The break came late on Tuesday, shortly before the inter-State Commerce Commission’s disapproval of the proposed railway merger was announced in Washington, and there is consequently much discussion of the possibility of there having been a leak in this news.