The times., 1898-12-23

There has not been so much interest in
| the stock market before for many years.
| The public all over the country Is buying
almost everything in sight. The question
| for the moment must be of course wheth-
| er after such large rise as the market
| has had In the last few months, and es-
pecialiy during the last few weeks with
| out any decline of importance-this buy
| ing by the public will be heavy enough
| to prevent a reaction. 1t has been the
| prediction of the critics for several days
| and even weeks that a reaction must
\ come, but despite this there has been a
| continuance of the steady advance. Ap-
| parently the selling by the professionals
| and even much selling by heavy financial
| interests has been a drop in the bucket.
| One opinion generally expressed yester-
| day was that, as the week has gone so
| far without any reaction, it is likely that
| after all there will be no end-of-the-year
break such as usually occurs. This pre-
| diction is based, of course on the fact that
the conditions are different from any in
| recent years and better in many respects.
| A careful observer of the market said
| to a reporter for The Times yesterday:
There is one new factor in this market
which the average professional trader has
| not yet grasped in anything like its full
| significance. There is immense buying OF
| securities that pay dividends by the in
surance companies and other similar in
| stitutions that must live on the. money
| they have at interest. Money is so cheap
| and promises to remain so cheap that
| such institutions have hard problem be-
fore them to keep their funds profitably
| employed. These companies that pay
| $4,000 salary to their presidents will not
| be able to do so long unless they can
make good Investments. These presi-
| dents, therefore. have clear and press
| ing duty before them. The insurance
| companies are a large part of the public
that has been credited with boosting this
| market, but it is easy to see that their
purchases are very little like those by
the average public on small margins.
Such buying takes stock out of the mar
ket and has permanent effect
The argument against all this is that
this is the greatest year the country ever
| saw in the steel trade. and that II will
| not compare with next year and the year
| after. And this is a very potent argu-
ment. The general belief is that the
| stock will go to so today. After that
there may and there may not come a
| reaction.
The feature Of the market yesterday
| was again the advance of Federal Steel
common. The opening was at As. the low
est price for the day, and the close at 49,
the highest for the day. and. of course,
the record price for the stock The pre-
| ferred was also active but there was no
advance in the stock. Flower was still q
| buyer of these stocks, but there were in
dications that the public was doing most
of the work in the common. The craze
of the public to buy is excellently illus
trated by this tremendous recent advance
of a stock that is paying no dividend and
that has a preferred stock ahead of it
to receive per cent dividend before it
can come in for a. cent. This trust was
launched a few months ago and since
that time has not paid anything to its
stockholders. There is So, 600 Of the
preferred stock on which must be paid
over 100000 dividends. The fixed