The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-02-27
HENRY CLEWES'S VIEWS.

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Henry Clewes, in his weekly financial let
ter, says: wall street still retains the ex-
traordinary exhibition Of strength developed
with the opening of the new year. The
strength, indeed, amounts to a positive stub
bornneSS Of holding, and it applies equally
to nearly the whole list. The extensive
realizing of two or three weeks ago has left
no signs Of weakening in its wake. The
stocks then sold appear to have passed into
hands capable of holding them through the
ups and downs in prices, and those who were
then sellers have again become holders, and,
as such, are contributing to the general
strength Of the market. Indeed, it is safe
to say that never in the history of Wall
street has there been such evidence of the
ability of operators to carry large lines of
stocks and to hold them with unwavering
firmness The pessimists have no place in
the struggles of the market, nor do they
appear to have any expectation that their
opportunity will soon put in an appearance;
they can scarcely find a pretense on which
to summon courage to sell, and have to be
satisfied with the merest crumbs of profit.
such f1rmneSS at the present unusually
nigh range OF prices might very naturally
be expected to give rise to some misgivings
and to some important realizing by the
more cautious class of operators. But there
are no symptoms of any such feeling. No
doubt there is among the more experienced
an expectation that a time for realizing lies
somewhere In the future, but nobody seems
to think it near at hand, and where sales
are made 1t is mostly to reinVest in som
other stock which seems to have a better
future. This extraordinary confidence is not
remarkable, in view of the general pros
perity Of business, the spirit of hopefulness
that pervadeS every part of the country. the
plain evidence that a great commercial ex-
panSion is in progress, the ease in money,
the continued increase in railroad earnings,
ana, still more, the entire absence of any
factor calculated to cast q doubt upon the
continuance of these golden conditions.
1T is true that some misgivings may seem
to he suggested nv the fact that we shall
soon have to remit $50, 600, coo to Spain on ac-
count of the peace settlement. And it is
quite possible that this operation, coming
outside tie ordinary transactions of the ex-
changes, may in some measure harden the
local rate of interest. And yet, for these
extraordinary times, this is a relatively
small matter. The available resources for
making the settlement are superabundantly
ample. Outside the gold reserve the treas
ury has an available cash balance in it's
vaults of $4,000, 600 and $50, 000,0 600 on de-
post with the national banks. There is thus
ample margin for the treasury avoiding
any demand upon its repositories in this
city calculated to sensibly disturb the loan
it is quite likely to do. There is in Europe,
however, a still large outstanding floating
Indebtedness due on demand to the United
states. A slight advance in the rate of in
terest here would make 1t a paying opera
lion to effect the 20,OOO,O00 remittance
through bills drawn against these funds; in
which case there would be no transfers of
money In the operation, Spain collecting her
award from our European debtors and the
operation at this end being confined to
transfers of deposits, with little or possibly
no effect upon the loaning ability of the
therefore,. come when it may, is not likely
to cause any noteworthy disturbance of the
local money market.
AS was expected, European holders of
our securities, not satisfied with wholesale
realizings at the high prices, also stimuli
taneouSly went short" upon them TO a con- |
siderable extent, with the consequence that,
during this week, they have had to buy
freely at New York for their settlements,
their nuTchaSeS on Thursday being about 1
thirty thousand shares. 1t may take Lon
don some time to learn that the recent great
advance in prices here means a permanently
higher range of values than they have been
accustomed to, and it will therefore not
market here by keeping London oversold.
1T begins to appear probable that we are
entering upon an appreciable abatement of
the extraordinary surplus of exports over
imports that has prevailed for the last eigh-
teen months. The imports are gaining upon
the figures of several months past. The
January figures are about $10.OO0,O00 below
those of 1895 and 1856 respectively; but they
exceed those of 1898 by $7,60,000 and those of
1897 by 81, O00. The exports for January
exceed those for the like months in any pre-
vious year, being $7,500,000 above those Of
1898, the next highest antecedent year-but
they fall $l3,2O,OO below the average for
December, November and October; which is |
no more than is due, however, to the usual
curtailment of shipments after the close of
the year. The January excess of merchan-
disc exports over imports, however, has
fallen TO the standard of one year ago,
namely, S0t,OUD,tUJ. Wnlcn IS NZO, (uJUUJ below |
the balance for December, $50, 100000 below
November, 100000 less than October and
$14. 400. coo over September. Still, the January
balance is at the rate Of $685., 900, 900 per an
mum. These facts indicate that the accu-
mutation of balances to our credit in Europe !
must have very much more than sufficed for
offsetting the extraordinary return of home
securities since the beginning OF January;
and II seems reasonable to infer that the
liquidation OF the settlement with Spain /
must leave still a very large sum to our