Omaha daily bee., 1903-05-28
NEW YORK STOCKS AND BONDS.
Market f. Inactive and Speculative
Sentiment Confused.


NEW YORK, May 27.-The only signlfi-
canoe in today's market movements cen
tered In a handful Of stocks and In the
prices moving contrariwise, with the result
that speculative sentiment was wholly con-
fused and almost paralyzed. The whole
market was inert to the degree of lethargy
and in very few cases was there a move
ment exceeding small fraction. Some
comfort was secured from the evidence of
support in St Paul, Pennsylvania, United
States Steel preferred and for a short time
after the opening In a few other prominent
| speculative stocks. But, on the other hand
! there was obvious continued realizing in
| Rock Island and the coalers and Pacifics
were inclined to heaviness. A brief upward
movement in Reading seemed to have no
other purpose than to correct this impress
sion as to the coalers and it was quickly
abandoned. The occasional rallies in the
| market, which were Invariably led by St.
Paul, were made in the intervals between
the execution of selling orders and were not
pursued with any aggresstveness. The ap-
pearance of the market suggested that
| those who had constituted themselves its
| protectors were satisfied to acquiesce in a
| downward movement of prices, while the
| selling pressure lasted, but sought to i'm
prove the, price level by bidding up when no
| serious obstacle was encountered. 1t was
\ evident that suspicion was rife as to the
! condition of the market, and there was no
| deep grounded conviction that the liquida-
| tion recently In evidence has fully been
! completed. II there has been any extended
bear account left over as the result Of the
| prolonged decline there was only the slight
| est evidence today OF any nervousness on
| the part Of bears over the check to the de-
| Gllllet anu lUe apparent CeSSallOn Oh nedNA
| liquidation and the demand from the shorts
was very light. Some slight buying for
| London account helped the rirm undertone
| of the early market. The very fact that the
| demand for stocks could be so languid and
| Indifferent after a decline of such violence
| as has occurred during the last week served
| to deter buyers from committing themselves
| whether for speculative or investment ac-
| count. There was very little news of inn
portance bearing on values and little atten-
| tion was paid to what there was The rise
| of point In United States Steel preferred
was attributed to reported purchase of 10O,
900 tons upward of pig iron by the cor
| poration for delivery during the late sum-
| mer months. The gain was lost before the
| close. St Paul got as much as 1% over last
| night and was near the high level several
times during the day, but 1t closed a shade
under last night. The weakness of Rock
| Island was unexplained beyond the general
argument that the sum of the market prices
| of the securities exchanged for old Rock
| Island stock made a valuation for that
stock considerably above that prevailing for
| other similarly situated stocks. Southern
! Pacific, Union Pacific and Baltimore & Ohio
| lost nearly a point. The selling of the
| United States Leather stocks was con-
nected with the reported project for bond
| Issue by the company The market closed
| steady. No gold was taken for export, but
this was said to be due to inadequate ship.
ping facilities. Bonds were dull. Total
| sales, par value, $500 900. United States
bonds were all unchanged on the last call.
| Following are the quotations on the New
| York Stock exchange: