The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-11-02
DAYS OF SUSPENSE
NOT so APPARENT THIS
YEAR.
IS - ,.-tse-- EwsrLltlN
GROWTH OF CONFIDENCE
Sass -
THE STRENGTH OF AMERICAN
STOCKS ABROAD.
OF CONFIDENCE
THAT FURRY IN CALL NONE,
Caused by Temporary Stringency-
Henry CIews' Weekly Review
OF Wall Street.

review of the financial situation, Henry
Clews says:
In Wall street. as in all other branches of
s,ness, everything Is still held in more or
ton has been declared. Nevertheless, up to
Thursday, there has been no interruption to
the growing frmness in the stock market,
and prices made a further advance OF l to
points due as much to the protective precau-
lions of the bears as to the growing conn-
dence of the bulls" and in no small meas
ure to the exceptional strength of Americans
at London. Thursday morning, an appar-
emily preconcerted attack was made along the
entire line attended with marking up of
the rate of interest on call loans to as hlgh
as 100 per cent per annum; and this had the
effect of forcing out weak holders and causing
a fall in prices of l to points; otherwise the
furry seems to have had no particular sig
nifcance; nor did it bring out any large
amount of stock. The pressure in call money
appears to have been caused by large pay
ments having to be made on November 1, to
provide for which the banks and trust COM
panies had call in heavy amounts of de-
mand loans before Saturday. To relieve the
pressure, some of the banks yesterday, by
common agreement, placed their spare funds
in charge of an agent to be used for easing
the emergency On Monday, this special
stringency should disappear. London was
free buyer of stocks through this furry
In the gold movement there has been moth
ing to materially affect the tone of business
here Some moderate amounts of the metal
have been engaged in London for shipment to
New York; but here, the rates for sterling
bills have not yet become completely adjusted
to last weeks advance in the Bank of Eng
lands rate of discount and at the moment,
imports of gold would not yield any profit,
but rather slight loss. 1t is not generally
taken into account, however, that within the
last sixty days a quite considerable sum of
sterling bills have been bought up on specu-
lation, as means of bridging over the sup
posed risks of a possible premium on gold,
until after the election. Had this exchange
gone forward 1t would have increased CORE
spondingly the imports of gold; but it now
constitutes withheld creditor element in the
exchanges; and as bills mature-which may
be expected from this time forward-they will
add SO much to the factors calculated to bring
gold this way. Another influence tending to
check the current supply of export bills has
been the hesitation about the future price of
wheat, concerning which there is some differ
ence OF opinion both here and in foreign mar
kets. The best foreign opinion however,
appears to be that there is sufficient real
cause for the rise In this staple, and that
the higher prices will be at least maintained
Tor the present crop; so that revival of the
export demand for wheat may be viewed as
among the probabilities of the near future.
In this view, 1t seems likely that importations
or gold may be early resumed. There is,
moreover, the possibility that the result of
the election may induce considerable exports
OF our securities to Europe; but upon that we
cannot at present count with any certainty,
as the condition of the foreign money mar
kets is not favorable to new speculations.
1t is generally conceded that the result of
Tuesdays election will be a general rise in
prices. The reason why that anticipation has
not already caused more of an advance and
why it permitted the fall above noted is
somewhat OF a mystery. Ordinarily import
ant expeeted-events are discounted by Wall
street in advance; and, in the present case
there has been some rise in prices, but-in
the common estimate at leaSt-not at all pro-
portioned to what such an important event
as the defeat of the silver agitation has
seemed to warrant. There appear to have
been three principal influences at work which
may account for this exception to the com
mon rule in speculative operations First
there has never been such an indisposition to
discount probabilities about the future as
there is in this particular matter; largely be-
cause, in the event of the country going in
favor of free silver, the consequences would
De SO extraordinarily serious as to amount to
much more than an ordinary speculative risk.
Second, the resolution to do nothing in an
ticpation of the election has become uni
Versal in business, and is adhered to with
remarkably persistent uniformity; and the
fact that this attitude has been unbroken
outside Wall street makes it the more credi-
Die that the stock exchange has been re-
strained by like Discrimination to operate.
Third, the state of the money market has
been so strongly against the procurement of
time loans as to make it very difficult to
conduct speculative operations upon a free
scale. Large lenders seem to have expressly
intended to prevent so serious a matter as
the present election from being made an oc-
casfon for. speculative excitement until the
event itself 1ust1fies a general recovery in
values.
However this may be, the thing that must
ultimately determine the prices Of securities
viii be the relation between their current
prices and those which, on the average have
prevailed previous to the arrangements of
the last three years. In other words. with
victory for sound money, the question will
be: How much more are stocks worth than
they have been with the possibility of free
coinage hanging over our heads? Perhaps
that question may be approximately answered
by comparison of last Thursdays prices
with those Immediately preceding the great
breakdown of 1893. which we here present: