The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-05-19
BEARS HAVE THE
STOCK MARKET
Made a Fierce Attack IN Prices
All Day.
ACTIVITY AMONG RAIL ROADS
Stocks Took an Upward Bound and
Then the Plunge Came With The
Market Closing Very Weak
and Unsettled.
ACTIVITY AMONG RAILROADS

New York May 1S.-Today ended on the
stock exchange with the bears apparently
unopposed and in complete possession of
the market. They made a fierce attack in
prices along the whole line in the final
hour after evidences of realizing at various
points in the list had become quite palpa
bIe
The largest volume of profit taking sales
came up on the market after quite ex-
tended list of railroad stocks had been
taken in hand and pushed up to decided
ly higher level. This movement in the
specialties had begun to go down and gave
a suggestion of shifting of speculation
by taking out profits from the specialties
and putting them into railroads. But the
railroad list succumbed to the late attack,
many stocks losing between L and points.
and Burlington dropping "a below the high
point of the day. Practically all the earlier
gains in the railroads were wiped out
through small net advances retained In
very few cases. Prices were marked up
at the opening to accommodate the outside
public, who were coming in to buy after
yesterdays notable advances. The de-
mand from that source was soon satisfied
and prices yielded and the market fell into
dullness at the decline. Losses were sharp
est, of course, in those stocks which have
been rushed up during the last few days.
Railroads showed a pretty good resist
ance and Manhattan was notably strong,
touching ia. Minneapolis, St. Paul and
Saulte Ste Marie, which had not moved in
long time, became briskly active, the
common stock rising 1012 and the preferred
~. AS the day progressed large demand
sprang up for Atchison preferred, the
Changers, Union and Northern Pacific and
other standard railroad stocks. Very
heavy blocks of Atchson preferred were
taken on this rise, and the price in
number of cases advanced over point
Anaconda mining also enjoyed gain of 81
Doints 1t was under cover of this move
ment in the railroads that the realizing
of profits in the specialties was in prog
ress. Nearly all the Flower specialties
Sugar and Tobacco, began to sag under the
weight of the sales. In the attack whlcn
the bears were thus encouraged to make
on the market, Sugar and Metropolitan
Street Railway dropped over points,
Brooklyn Transit AZ, and a number OF
other specialties points or over There
was momentary rally but prices plunged
downward again, and the closing was very
weak and unsettled, Sugar alone rallying
over a point on taking of bear profits, put
the prices generally ending at the lowest
of the day. There was nothing Ill inc
general news of the day which seemed To
influence the trading unless 1t might De
furtber hardening in the rates of exchange,
which continues to rise, and is near the
gold import point, in spite of the continued
ease of money and the apparent abundance
of funds both here and in the interior.
There was no diminution in the heaVy
demand for the new bond issues OF some
of the railroads, notably the Central "a
ciic contamination issues. Prices of rail-
road bonds held notably firm. Total sales,
s5 02O 0OO United States 3s advanced rs IN
the bid price. .
Money on call steady at 214@3 per cent;
last loan at B.
Prime mercantile paper 314@4A per cent.
Sterling exchange easy with actual busl-
ness in bankers bills at $4S7196l4.s7&i for
demand, and $4.S5@4s5s4 for sixty days
Posted rates, $4.S6k@4.SS1a.
Commercial bills, $4S5Q4S5A.
Silver certificates, 6lQ62c.
Bar silver, Gle.
Mexican dollars, 48Ac
Government bonds, irmer.
State bonds, inactive
Railroad bonds, strong.
Dat 70 4