The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-05-02

New York, May 1.-Money on call was
easy at 14Gdls per cent. Prime mercantile
paper. S1@G4 per cent. Sterling exchange
steady, with actual business in bankers
bills at $4.S714d4.S712 for demand, and at
81. S6A6f4. S6la for sixty days; posted rates,
$4.6a4. ssh: commercial bills S4.S515. Bar
silver, size. Mexican dollars, As S-l6c.
State bonds dull Railroad bonds easier.
Government bonds weak.
New York, May 1.-The weekly bank
statement shows the following changes:
Reserve, decrease. $S40,275; loans, increase,
1884 500; specie, increase, 1885, 100; legal ten
der. decrease, ST., 200; deposits, increase,
81 079. 100, circulation, decrease, SS70, 100.
The banks now hold S4S, 917, SIS in excess
of the requirements of the IS per cent
rule.
New York, May. 1.-The close of the
weeks trading was marked by the same
condition of apathy and almost of stag
nation which has characterized the mar
ket all through the week. This was ac-
centuated by the fact that to-day was
holiday on the London exchange and by
definite announcement from Boston that
the shipment of gold to Europe on Tues
day next by a house there would be in
creased to 81, 100000. The market was left
freely in the hands of professional trad
ers, and was without feature of general
interest. The prevailing dullness was ac-
companied by the heaviuess of inertia,
and prices sagged even on the limited of
ferings of shares A few individual prop
critics were subject TO special unfaVorable
influences and the general market show
| ed itself sensitive to the sympathetic eff
feet of these, though the fluctuations We're
within narrow compass. The average de-
cline of the day was something over Ss
| The Changers were rather heavier than
| the general list, the decline in that group,
in the case of Northwestern extending to
| a. The coalers were pretty well held out
side of New Jersey Central, and Reading,
! the former closing IS net Decline after
| an initial rise of Il. Tobacco fell only g in
| face of the announcement of the Withdraw
al from the directory of a prominent in
terest. The largest losses were in the spe-
caltes; a point each for Tennessee Coal
and Iron. and Brooklyn Union Gas the
former on reports of prospective labor
! troubles Western Union declined further
| * to 767s. and Sugar lost s..
The only gains in the list were in Leath-
er preferred, on covering, Pullman, Lack
awanna and Consolidated Gas each of
which rose "A. The market closed unset
tied and irregular.
The dealers in stocks and bonds have
been occupied all the week almost exclu-
| sively with the gold export movement,
| which has set in, and have manifested
| considerable uneasiness at the proportions
assumed by the shipments. The gold
movement has proved a puzzle to the best
authorities, and the inability to account
for it satisfactorily has been as much the
! cause of the stagnation in stock dealing
as any positive apprehensions of its eff
| fects Last Saturday the opinion was
| quite general that no exports of gold
would be made until the then prevailing
| rate of exchange, which was 81 SSA for
short sterling, should rise above that fig
| ure. Yet, to-day with demand sterling
only just steady at 81. S715, or ~ per cent.
| below the profitable point agreed upon by
| the exchange houses shiDmant of 81
| 100000 additional gold is announced from
Boston to be made by next Tuesdays
steamer. The doubt as to gold shipments
being in response to the exhaustion of our
credit balance abroad, grows out of the
extraordinary heavy excess of our
merchandise exports over imports
for the nine months of the fiscal
| year, an excess aggregating 1929 900, 900.
| Those who argue that the balance of cred
| its has turned against us assert that this
| excess of exports must be largely dis
! counted on account of under valuations of
imports to evade customs duties. They
point to the heavy importations of the
| last two months in anticipation and the
4 heavy obligations incurred for still heaV-
| Ter importations to come before the new
| tariff goes into effect; the large volume
! of our securities that has to be paid for;
! the charges we must pay to foreigners for
! our ocean carrying trade; the credits car
| ried abroad by American travellers to be
| expended there; the withdrawal of foreign
| capital which was placed in loans in the
! New York money market and payment of
| dividends and interest on American secu-
| rites still held by foreigners. All these
are said to amply account for the wiping
out of the trade balance in our favor and
a legitimate exchange demand for gold
shipments. On the other hand, it is claim
ed with authority, that with sterling ex
change on the basis of 4S7A for demand,
81
must be due to the payment of something
equivalent to a premium growing out of
a demand for special causes Austria has
sold a number of treasury bills i'm Lon
don, which are payable in gold, thus in
creasing her claims on London in much
the same way our government did to re-
plenish the treasury gold reserve. Japan
and Russia are also earnest seekers for
gold for currency purposes. Paris ex-
change on London is at point to require
gold. shipments from London, owing to
heavy sales in London of securities held
in Paris. That this reflected demand for
gold is an element in the explanation of
our gold shipments is reasonable to sup
pose.
At all events, the fast that $6,477, 900 gold
has been SHIPPED to Europe during the
week and that 100000 more is already an
nounced for the week has discouraged
transactions in stocks and has unsettled
brought the stock market into a condition
of stagnation and has produced a declin-
ing tendency In nearly al values. The
backwardness of business generally and
the continued absence of demand for the
large stocks of idle money held are further
influences to depress the markets With
large surplus of reserve of gold in the
United States this year and an unusually
large stock of the metal in the country
outside the treasury, and with the current
receipts of the government in excess of
expedtures on account of heavy Gus
toms receipts. confidence is expressed that
the IL effects of the outward gold move
ment will not be severe, nor long contin-
ued even If the exports reach considerably
larger proportions and are continued for
quite time. In the stock market the
stagnancy has restricted the changes in
the standard shares TO narrow limits either
way.
The bond market was devoid OF feat
ure during the week and prices OF the
leading issues show but little net changes
The main trend of values was toward