The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-02-05
PROFESSIONALS
 STILL CONTROL There Were Evidences of Strength In Stock Market
 
 MORE AGGRESSION SHOWN This It Ia Believed Was Due to Fur thering of Operations at Southern Resort AbundantIy Supplied With
 Special Wire Service. 
MORE AGGRESSION SHOWN

Kew York, ebruary 4-Yesterdays level of activity in stocks was pretty well maintained today and there were evil dences of considerable strength in the market The operations seemed to be confined still to professional hands, but the leadership was more aggressive and better organized than for some time past and there was evidence of the control of large resources by those operations It was the theory of the board room oper- ators that the action of the market was largely due to the furthering of a num- Der of well known stock operators at a southern resort abundantly supplied with special wire service Included in the gathering is the operator whose name has been associated with the principal stock market sensations for many months past, Whatever the source of the buy ing. the movement was spotty and ir- regular and the earlier movements were not we'll maintained, The operations in Reading were on a growing scale during the day and it became easy the leader of the market in the late dealings with a rise of points above last night. There was no news to explain the movement beyond the heavy earnings known to have been accommodating in the treasuries of all the coal carrying railroads. An nouncement was made today of several postponed steamships sailing on account of delay in securing coal.
 This was accepted as Illustrating the universal pressure for this product. What ever the advantage of such condition to the coal carrying railroads 1t was not considered favorable to the industrial sit- nation at large, Semi-official confirma- tion was given to the assertion that the Union Pacific and the Rock Island had !. been brought together in some sort of agreement insuring mutual advantage by interchange of business. Nothing definite could be learned of the scope of the agree ment but the report was accepted with satisfaction as a substantial step in a community of interest which might avoid future damaging competition The publi- cation of this report was probably the, cause for the revived rumors that the proposed merger of the Gould railroad properties was almost ready for an- nouncement. The stocks of the various companies affected by these rumors were not amongst the speculative leaders of the day. There was an opening squirt in Rock Island but the stock fell back al- most immediately and was not more than steady for the rest of the day. Union Pacific was firm, but not active and Southern Pacific rose a point In the late dealings. The rise in St. Paul was sup posed to be traceable to the same sources as that in Reading. The strength in Erie common was only moderate, but the pre- ferred stocks continued to advance on ac- count of the better sentiment in the cop per trade. Yesterdays sudden movement in United. States steel stocks was not fol- lowed up today and those stocks were in- clined to drag. This fact and the fail- ure of the Rock Islands stock to retain their opening gains threw the market Into condition of hesitation and uncer- tainty but the rise in Reading and gains by miscellaneous assortment of miner stocks had somewhat reassuring effect. Money continued easy and exchange firm without affecting the stock market
 The closing was quiet and steady.
 Bonds were steady; total sales par value s3475,O0o. United States 2s declined A per cent on the last call.