The age-herald., 1897-08-19
In Wall Street.

In Wall Street.
 New York, Aug. 18.--The greater part of the days proceedings on the floor of the stock exchange consisted of a kind of fencing for position or to develop the position of the opposing elements. 1he bulls were not in an aggressive mood ard there was not at any time during the day an active buying demand. Bulls wera- in a waiting mood and their position was rather defensive. The invitation 10 an attack thus afforded was accepted by the bears and their efforts to precipitate decline were eeried. They succeeded in keeping prices slightly below the level of last nights close. The heaviness was caused In part by talk of crop damage in the west and was in larger part due to whether the rise in prices had not reach ed a sufficiently high level to fairly dis count the conditions, present and pros pective which brought it through the sllort selling by The bears and was SUD- p,arnented by some profit taking sales, but the volume of stop loss orders dis lodged much more. The bears calculate on these to start a heavy selling move ment. But they have to count alao on the buttrsss of orders to buy at Q lower leyel and the decreasing scale wl,i 'il underles many prominent stocks in the market. A bear raid. to be successful, must dslodge stop loss orders in such quantity that they cannot be absorbed by these buying orders. The bears encoun- teRed these obstacles at a very early stase e of, the decline today. Some adverse ef- feets was produced upon prices by the hspdening in the rates of sterling ex- change ard there has been some disposition to discount the effect of& the early importatiors of god for the buying of stocks. The course of exchange today was in re- sponse to the hardening discount rate in London and Selief that the Bank of England's minitoum rate of discount would be raised trday. Sugar was ac- tiNely traded h and she price moved quite freely over range of more than ? points, andits late strength was facto~ in rally ing the market. The sensa tional jump in the wheat market also had a us,aining influence in the late dealings. The Sou h. western railway ste cks were all notably firm and strong in the late dealings, Mis- sopri Pacific leading on account of an in- crease of $62,000 shown by earnings for the second week in August. St. Paul was also firmer than ike average of tha list on it's second week earnings. The net changes in prices are small in most of the active stocks but are mostly gains There was a falling off of oyer 100 000 shares in the volume of trading today as compared with yesterdays, and the tra E. actions in bonds were also much dimin-i iahed. The toal sales of stocks today were 335,00S shares, including Atcliison preferred, Is, ,450; Burlington, 31, ,960; Chs S. apeake and Ohio, 1925; Missouri Pacific, 13,fS5; Northern Pacific, 5,700; Northern Pacific preferred, 12,462; Reading, 6,12o; Rock Island, S,560; St. Paul. Il, 160; Texas and Pacific, 7,070 American Tobacco, lo,- 4S0; Chicago Cas- 7,730; Sugar, 30245; len nessee Coal and Iron, 5,123; Western En- ion, 6,725; Chicago Great Western, 21 ,5O0
 Tine bond market displayed a very firm tone throughout ard did not participate in The feveufshness noted in the stock market. Business was rather light and gains generally trivial. The aggregaNe sales were $1.470,000.
 Governments were well held with deal inss confined to 5000.
 Money on call easy alt 1@11s per c.1tt.; last loan 1A per cent; closed 1@1A per cehit
 Prime mercantile paper 3k@4h per cent.
 Sterling exchange firmer with actual business in bankers bills at $4.85ss@S4 S5S4 for demand and at $4S3ss @$4S3h for sixty days.
 Rested rates $4.S4h@$4S6 and $4S50 $4.S7.
 Gommercial bills s4.s2K@siSs.
 Silver certificates 541ac.
 Bar silver 551sc.
 Mexican dollars 41c.
 Government bonds firm.
 State bonds dull.
 Railroad bonds firm.
 Rstioleum sylvania, crude no mar