The times., 1899-12-04
STOCK MARKET GOSSIP.
Factors That Are Likely TO influence
Speculation.

Factors That Are Likely 10 influence
Speculation.
NEW YORK. Dec. 3.-The indications
that the ending of the year will be an ex-
cellent one for the stock market are multi
plying rapidly. Added to the already well
understood great prosperity everywhere,
the immense railway earnings, the stu
pendous profits of the steel and iron and
other industrial corporations, and the clear
outlook that these will continue for months
and even years without abatement, there
are in the immediate future the conYenlng
of a Congress which promises to make
laws that Wall Street will like, from cur
reucy legislation to expansion legislation,
and the message of the President, that it
As known will be full of rosy promises Of
prosperitv. There is the belief in many
quarters that Secretary Cages plan for the
unification Of the Governments debt into
one issue viii be fulfilled. There is
large hope that railway pooling Will be
legitimatized There are the expectations,
apparently well founded, that the subsidy
bill will become a law shortly
All these matters are of the quality that
exercises most potent effect on the i'm
mediate movements of the stock mar
ket. Even the promise Of them rouses
investors and spectators TO enthusiasm.
Railway earnings and industrial corpora
ton profits may be ever se1imrnense ana
certain and the stock market may be duIt
and listless, as has been illustrated dur
ing the past three or four months. 1t re-
| quires talk of deals, and schemes, and
hopes, and possibilities, to start a boom.
Substantial prosperity in the end .es the
values Of securities, and is a good guide for
Z hos IN " o.
mentary fluctuations, such as the average
Speculator watches. At the present time
both the substantial and the promises are
leagued to make the stock market attrac-
tive.
Prosperity signs brighten. Business ac-
tivty extends Profits, according to au-
thorities are satisfactory. One factor IN
the situation not much spoken OF IS that
extraordinary outputs OF American manu-
features are being sold to customers from
whom collections are made more promptly
than has hitherto ever ruled in trade cir
! cles.
Railway earnings keep on Increasing in
record breaking ways. According to most
/ conservative estimates, We were to nave
/ before the lst of December marked abate-
ment in traffic returns but instead of any
such disclosure are figures piling every
week higher and higher Such railway
earnings, moreover, reflect trattc rates
materially below what from this time
forward will figure in established sched-
ules Advances in rates have been issuing
in various quarters for some time past,
but not until now has there been any
tangible evidence of what is a carefully
undertaken plan establishing the policy
generally Moves hitherto made quietly
are now to be openly and aggressively sup
plemented One prompt result will be in
/ creased dividends.
Disclosures of the extraordinary financial
/ transactions which result practically in
unified control of the Eastern trunk line
situation have exerted much influence upon
investment confidence Some curious de-
malls" have been put out TO Offset the
statement of facts, but not one responsible
authority has so far been quoted explicitly
disputing anything essential. The truth
is that not only has the New York Central
Pennsylvania Baltimore and Ohio deal re-
moved what at one time threatened dis
turbance in the Eastern railway field, but
the actual and immediate result OF that
deal is that control of the entire Eastern
railway situation has become so concen-
trated that three men are absolute masters
of it: and as Mr. Morgan Mr.. Wander
bilt. and Mr. Cassatt may choose to exercise
their powers, so will Eastern trunk line
policy be shaped, so viii Eastern railroad
rates be made, so viii Eastern operations
proceed and this. curious as it may be
quite apart from their failure to take into
their confidence a garrulous variety Of gen
tIemen- directors by courtesy.
It is the estimate of one OF the threC
controlling inanciers that the Baltimore
and Ohio deal will lead soon 70 the insti-
tuition Of economies in Eastern railway op-
Grafton which alone can provide increased
dividend disbursements New Yorl
Central and Pennsylvania
Something OF a chill was given tempo
rarily to Wall Street hs the advance in the
Bank OF England discount rate 20 pei
cent, that figure not having been charged
since the Barring panic Of 1880. OF course
bear spectators made much ado over thi:
advance. The first thing they Were sure o.
was that the United States would be drained
of gold. that business would be brought
to a standstill abroad. that enforced com.
merciaI and industrial contraction woulC
hurry a foreign crash and that this coun'
try must suffer extraordinary Auctuation!
Immediately. Wall Streets new temper o
confidence was, however sufficient 70 with
stand such arguments" Bankers Of i'm.
portauce agree that little Is to be appre-
beuded here as resulting from the Bank o
highlands policy.