Call Money Jumps to Twenty per cent

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 623, 27 March 1929, Page 9

Call Money Jumps to Twenty per cent

HIGHEST FOR NINE YEARS BILLIONS LOST IN U.S.A. (United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) (United Service) Reed. 9.10 a.m. NEW YORK, Tuesday. Call money reached 20 per cent, on the Stock Exchange today, the highest it has been since February, 1920. Values crashed in Wall Street. Statisticians have estimated that the aggregate quoted values of all listed stocks was reduced by more than a billion dollars yesterday and today. One of the worst declines in tlie history of the Stock Exchange has occurred. Sales totalled over 7,000,000 shares for the first time, as prices crumpled under the avalanche of selling. Billions of dollars worth of paper profits w r ere wiped out in the reaction, which embraced the entire list, forcing prices down from one to 20 points. Brokers were frantic with the huge wave of selling orders, and the ticker machines ran 75 minutes behind the markets. The demoralising effect pervaded not only all securities and markets in the United States, but brought terrific selling into the grain market at Chicago, and cotton on the New York cotton exchange. Wheat tumbled nearly five cents. Curb stocks and bonds were also forced lower. When fairly accurate figures could be obtained from the bewildered brokers it was discovered that the total sale of shares, excluding odd lot sales, reached the new record of 5,239,000 shares. The day, besides witnessing the severest reaction ever experienced, saw a remarkable recovery toward the close. Radio, United States Steel and other issues, after slumping greatly, gained ground just before the end of the session.