The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-06-14

At New York. yesterday, money on call
was steady at 1A@1z per cent; last loan,
I1a per cent.
Prime mercantile paper. 3G4 per cent
Sterling exchange was weak, with actual
business in bankers bills at $4S514d4S5h
for demand and s4.sSa4@4s4 for sixty days;
posted rates, &.85d4S512 and $4.S61504&;
commercial bills, $4.S3.
Silver certificates. 57%G5S1sc; bar silver,
STAG; Mexican dollars 45Ac. At London
bar silver was uncertain at 2634d an ounce.
Total sales of stocks were 527, 400 shares,
including: Atchison, 4.635; Atchison pre-
ferred, 22,740; Chesapeake e. Ohio, BLESS;
Chicago. Burlington & Quincy, 45.3S3; Louis
vile & Nashville. 1880; Manhattan, 1000;
Metropolitan, $50; Missouri Pacific. 1920;
New York Central, 4,S9O; Northern Pacific,
1880; Northern Pacific preferred, 2OS30;
Rock Island, IL, 220; st. Paul, 40,S50; South
ern preferred, 1927; Union Pacific preferred.
2422O; Tobacco, 2s,5O4; Chicago Great West
ern, 1O7S0; Peoples Gas, 1925; Sugar, 6S,S64;
Tennessee Coal and Iron, 4,723 Rubber,
5627.
The slump in the stock market was
surprise to most speculative observers, who
looked for an advance in prices after the
apparent abandonment of last weeks per-
underlying cause of yesterdays violent de-
cline was not very clear and many sug-
gested solutions of the puzzle all more or
less ingenious, found currency. Specifically
there was evident some sympathy with the
dropping out of the bottom of the wheat
market, and there were very heavy sales of
securities on the New York Exchange on
Geographic orders from Chicago. A de-
cline in the price of wheat does not neces-
sarily imply harm to railroad property, as
was seen in the notable advance of the
grangers last Friday on favorable govern
ment report, but so violent decline in
wheat as that of yesterday arouses some
question whether the farmers will find
profit in the sale of the years crop, and
the railroad companies are of course de-
pendent for their prosperity on the prosper
ity of the population they serve. Further
more, such a Shrinkage in values as that
in grain involves large liquidation of col
lateralS, and 1t was this that caused the
chief damage to prices of stocks. Weak
ness permeated pretty much the whole list,
but was especially marked in the grangers,
Peoples Gas and some of the high-priced
specialties. This acute selling pressure from
the Chicago market gave rise to some per
sistent reports of pending large failure
in Chicago in the grain trade. But there
was also an ingenious suggestion to the eff
feet that a large speculative combination
in Chicago was manipulating the market
with a view to going long of wheat while
the inevitable rumors of crop damage be-
fore harvest time. Damage to the crop.
or even widely credited reports of damage,
would certainly result in a bulge in the
wheat market and in sharp reaction in
stocks.
Rates for time money were quotably
higher. Sterling exchange declined 12c to
&c, both for actual and posted rates Prep
arations for the government bond issues
were thus manifest in the money market,
and may possibly have made an impression
also on the stock speculation. London
bought freely of stocks in New York al the
morning decline and thus helped to weaken
the exchange market. Inc rally in the last
hour of the stock market was plainly on
covering by professional traders.
The days activity in the bond market was
at the expense of values, as was the case
in stocks. Sales. $1,000, 600. United States
new tours. coupon. advanced q, and the
registered tours, both old and new, "A, in
the bid price.
The following table. prepared by L. w.
Louis. Room IL. Board of Trade shows
the range of quotations: