The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-02-28

tion of the steel stocks to gravitate to a lower level is q distinct disappointment
 to the speculativ world, as it was hoped
 that when the doubts and uncertain
 ties attending the period of negotiations
 were cleared LID and the great consoli-
 dation of control fully assured, prices
 of the securities would reflect the hoped
 for advantages to the owners Of the properties. There was large trading again in the stocks of the ground to-
 day, but it was in large part on arbi- trage operations from one stock to
 another. The discrepancy in the prices of the stocks and their privileges of
 conversion into the stock of the United | States Steel corporation forms the basis | of these operations. They consist in | the purchase of such members of the
 group as are approximately low, and
 the simultaneous sale against these
 purchases of stocks which are high.
 The natural tendency of these opera l tions is to bring the prices of the varl- ous stocks to basis consistent with their relative claims for the new stock ' It was quite evident to-day that this
 process of adjustment was serving to
 bring down the prices of those stocks
 selling too high rather than to bring up
 the prices of those which were relative
 ly low. That is to say, most members
 of the group shrowed declines on the
 day which extend to 2& in National
 Tube, 3 in Tin Plate, and point each
 in the National Steel stocks and Ma
 tionaI Tube preferred. Steel and Wire
 preferred was advanced 11a, Federal
 Steel preferred nearly a point and
 American Hoop and Tin Plate preferred
 small fractions. For the purpose of &C.,
 commodating these arbitrage operators there were also dealings on the curb in contracts to deliver when issued the new United States Steel corporation stock. The common stock demanded 401a at one time this morning and the preferred 841a. But before the close of the market the quotation for the con-
 mon stock had receded to below 3S and | that for the preferred to about 82 The | transactions amounted to only few thousand shares, but the quotations were accepted on the stock exchange l as basis of operations, These securi- ties are expected to be listed ultimately l on the stock exchange, but it is not un- usual that securities so transferred | from the curb market to the exchange sell lower after the change. An ex- ample is that of the new Union Pacific \ 4 per cent. bonds issued to X provide forN the Southern Pacific pur- chase, which sold in the unlisted depart ment of the exchange for the first time to- day. over points below the recent outside quotation. The strength of St. Paul to-day was accompanied by asser- tions that the dividend will certainly be increased at the approaching meeting. The movement in Sugar was attributed to reports that the import duty on Gu ban raw sugar is to be remitted. The money market continued easy to-day, ] the large absorption by the sub-treasury on account of the { customs payments. :, Borrowers indulg- ed the hope that some of the recent ! arge loans incident to the railroad con- will shortly be paid off on account of the distribution of new se- ,urities.
 Railroad bonds became somewhat ir- egular on a fair volume of dealings. ' Total sales par value. $2,S6500O. {
 United States new As advanced rss I nd the refunding 2s h per cent. on the ] asst call. 7