Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-02-24
Stocks Were Weak and Irregular in
New York Today.
COAL SHARES WERE An EXCEPTION
Depreciation of Third Avenue Has
Bad Effect
GENERAL MARKET REPORTS
Special Dispatch to The Evening Star.

Special Dispatch to The Evening Star
NEW YORK, February 24.-The absence
OF an outside demand and further defer
mined attack upon Third Avenue resulted in
an irregular but generally weak stock mar
ket this morning. The coal stocks wore
me one exception to the weakness the
demand for Reading and the Norfolk issues
being especially good
Inc course of prices during the weel, has
been largely influenced by the decline q,
Ihird Avenue. The property has had M
support of consequence. and liouidatio,
aided by stop orders have made subs,ap-
'fal inroads into its market value Tho
price OF this stock on January 2. this year
Mas Lob I-N, today it sold at "a Ia I,
february, 1899. the stock sold AT go g
shrihkage cannot fail TO make an i'm
preston on the financial communit,. a,
10 dividends have declined from -
W , per cent, and $4,000 900 are reoutrad
TO take care of the companv's dTattn,r -
ana IT'S immediate needs That this sun,
,iaS peeh guaranteed should have been re-
s,noL, ing, put instead the shaking out OF
STOCK was only stayed by the rIosine 81
business. The other traction sbaras -.
Meah IN sympathy. and the signing of mo
.apiu transit contract suggested nnss,hili
lleS Tor a general complication az H. iac,I
maS situation. The iron and steel
STOCKS We're weak owning to tho ncc.sst,,
Hsilenlfig accounts. and the vario,Is
tI'4ues' outside of the coal shares sear,sd
w. IN lia'e Iost confidence in their undertak
traders had the market 10 Them
selves and We're aided in their efforts 80
tofce the decline by another unsafIsfact,r,,
pank statement N''t9
The banks have lost s.. ooo I'm tsn,r,,,
money and have again aynan,iaa II" - -.
leans. An increase in the latter ita,, n,
Sii'o"o,"o brings the total loan exnansfor
s en- the beginning of the year up To nearly
stoNb,Wo or in round numbers aho,,y
sirrbVb fOr each DO,
posts FOR the third successive week arr
thoroughly inconsistent with the balanc. ~
.iIe report. The Increase of s.. SIS 800 this
week Is over S2,oO0,Up0 short of the ar,o,,,,,
required to Offset the other chances m
net result of all changes reduces tho sur
pius reserve 81 .337, l25 briueine, the ,otsI
at t Town 10 SD6iS550. The loan expan-
SION Whlle attracting universal attenfior
mas thus far failed of an arcsntatra -
I pIdiiatlon- The idea Of loans being taken
up IN out-of-town banks and sbifrtpr ~
toaIis rom the hon-member banks and trust
companies continues to find cradenra in
NeIl-lnformed circles. later theor,, ana
ore passed on the recent course of nrir.s Is
mat the banking interests have been n :
tuiluiatlhs government bonds I'm order TO
lake advantage of the provisions of tba
currency bill ''V
All classes of government bonds have ad-
Vanced during this period of loan exparlsfn,
tI I toIay prices were the highest reco-.l-
ca on inns movement. In the last renor, TO
me controller the larger banks showed
themselves to be liberal borrowers of go,,
ernment bonds These bonds were borrow
ed In order that the banks might qualify as
government repositories for revenue funds
without actually purchasing the bonds Tha
rev theory is that the banks have since
purchased the bords and are holding them
Tor proht under the circulation and refl1nd-
lfS clauses of the currency bill. II IS rea-
sonably certain that the security markets.
are hating largely by reason of some
slsantic banking enterprise with which the
SPECULATIVE element in Wall street are not
identified. "