Birmingham state herald., 1897-05-02

terrors and cotton has steadily advanced m the face or actual hostilities of most
 And the advance has barely begun.
 hGqns HUGH irqy' F. M'ELRoY.
 Tn Wall Street
 New York, May 1.-The close of the weeks trading was market by the same kind of apathy and almost of stagnation which has characterized the market all through the week. This was accentuated by the fact that today was a holiday on the London exchange and by the definite announce ment from Boston that the shipment of gold to Europe on Tuesday next by house there would be increased to $1000, ,00O The market was left freely in the hands of pro- fessional traders and was without feature Of general interest. The prevailing dullness was accompanied by the heaviness of in- ertia and prices sagged even on the limited critics were subject to special unfavorable influences and the general market showed itself sensitive to the sympathetic effect of these though the fluctuations were within narrow compass. The decline of the day on the average was something like B. The Changers were rather heavier than the gen eral list, the decline in that group in the case of Northwest extending to %. The ooalers were pretty well held outside of New Jersey Central and Reading, the form CT closing 5a net loss after an increase of A. Reading fell only B in the face of the an- nouncement. of the withdrawal from the losses were in the specialties a point each for Tennessee Coal Brooklyn Union Gas, the former on reports of prospective labor 7s to 767 and Sugar lost 5s. The only gains in the list were in Leather preferred on covering, Pullman, Lackawanna and Con- market closed unsettled and irregular.
 The dealers in stocks and bonds have been occupied all the week almost exclusive ly with the gold export movement, which has set in and have manifested considerable business at the proportion assumed by the shipments. The gold movement has proven a puzzle to the best authorities and the n- ability to account for it satisfactorily has been as much the cause for stagnaton in sons of it's eots a fast satarday the opinion was quite general that no exports of gold would be made until the then pre- vailing rate of exchange, which was $4SSA for short sterling, should rise above that figure. Yet today with demand sterling profitable point agreed upon by the ex- change houses, @ shipment of $1,0000 GOO ad- ditionai gold is announced from Boston to doubt as to gold shipment being in response to the exhaustion of our credit balance abroad, grows out of the. extraordinary over imports for the nine months of the fiscal year, an excess aggregating s323, ,0O0,- 900. Those who argue that the balance. of credit has turned against us assert that this excess of exports must be largely dis counted on account of undervalues to evade customs duties. They point to the heavy inn portations for the last two months in an- tcipation and the heavy obligations incur red from still heavier importations to come volume of our securities that have to be paid for, the charges we must pay to for eigners for our ocean carrying trade, the CTS to be expended there; the withdrawal of foreign capital which was placed in loans in the New York money market and pay ment of dividends and interest on Ameri- can securities still held by foreigners. All these are said to amply account for. the and a legitimate exchange demand for gold shipments. On the other hand it is claimed with authority with sterling exchange on is no profit in gold shipments which must be due to the payment of something equiva- lent to premium growing out of a demand for special causes Austria has sold num- Der Of treasury bills in London which are payable in gold, thus increasing her claims ernment did to replenish the treasury re- serve. Japan and Russia are also earnest seekers for gold for currency purposes. Paris exchance 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 shipments is reasonable to suppose. At all events, the fact that $6,477 900 gold and and that sl, ,55o, GOO more is already announced for next week, has discouraged the invest- ment in stocks and unsettled the minds of the speculators as to throw the stock mar ket into a kind of stagnaton and has pro duced a declining tendency in nearly all values. The backwardness of business gen- orally and the continued absence of demand for long stocks and idle money are further influences to depress the markets. With a large surplus reserve of gold in the United States treasury and an unusually large stock of metal in the country outside the treasury and with the current receipts of the government in excess of expenditures on account of heavy customs receipts conf1- dence is expressed that the ill-effects of the outward gold movement will not be severe nor long continued, even if the exports reached considerably larger proportions and are continued for quite a1 ia time. Ii, sisted the changes in the standard shares to narrow the limits either way.
 The bond market was devoid of feature issues show little change. The main trend of values was toward g. lower plane in sym pathy with the influences governing the share market but the losses are not ex- leoted mortgages. The total sales of stocks today were 5,S95 shares, including the fol- lowing: Sugar, 2.5oo; Western Union, 5,2oo. Prime mercantile paper. S1sq4 per cent. Sterling exchange, steady. with actual busi- ness in bankers bills at s4.S7A@S4S71b for ssp Posted TH rates sia and sk.% % commer Gaes. Bar silver, 6lIc. Mexican dollars, 4Ss-1sc. State bonds. dull.
 Railroad bonds, easier.
 Government bonds, weak
 Closing Stocks:
 Atchison .-.. ..........-.... I0ls Adams Express. ................,........... 150 American Express. ............. 112 Baltimore ana Ohlo......,.... ........'.. llA Canada Paeinc.. ....... .........'..'...'.. 5l~ CapAda Soutnern ......ssNs.....s..'.... 40 Chesapeake and Ohio .. x. .............. 16G
 Sh,eesgo ana Anto9s ana i63ss