The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-10-16
GOSSIP o. WALL STREET.


been pressed for sale in the course Of tina
liquidation where railroad stocks have not
Housman sold American Locomotive pre-
feTred down. presumably on a market -
order.
The controversy over the accuracy Of In.
Governments figures on the corn and wheat
crops II h1coming rather heated. Grain
houses that have private machinery for
gathering crop information insist that the
Governments estimates Of the yield are too
high. and present evidence based upop the
results Of previous years TO show the ten
dency OF the Washington statisticians to
be oversanRhine One OF the largest grain
houses In the country il bulling corn again
partly on conviction that the government
estimates are too high and partly on tho
export outlook. Exports are now averag-
ing about SS0.O0o bushels a day.
Brooklyn Rapid Transit has been for acme
time conspicuous target for bearish traders
partly because II Is a non dividend paying
stock and partly because Of the impression
prevailing In the room that its speculative
position lie not strong. II was raided yester-
day forenoon by room traders and touched
the extreme low price OF 10 under aggressive
professional selling Short covering was
the principal support. Jursensen. John
n Davis 4 Co., Currie Brothers and E. e.
Potter were prominent sellers. One pretext
for the demonstration was that labor troubles
on the Manhattan might spread to Brook
Ign, which. Of course. was only pretext.
Manhattan declined y per cent and later
advanced per cent. closing at a fractional
net gain.
Stocks were more freely supplied in the
loan crowd yesterday. There was still a
good demand. however for such industrial e
as American Smelling, American Car and
Foundry, Pressed Steel Car, Leather pre-
ferred. Republic Iron and Steel and United
States Steel preferred. In the railroad list
Canadian Pacific. New York Central. Penn
sylvania and Atchison were in the most de-
maRd. There Was also fairly active in
auiry for ANA gamated Copper. The shrink
age Of the general short interest is believed
to have been inconsiderable.
After all the conjecture and uncertainty
concerning the Amalganated Copper divi-
dend. whether it would be left unchanged.
cut. or passed altogether. the action Of the
directors Yesterday afternoon in declaring
the old dividend Of =, Of l per cent. for the
quarter had no effect upon the stock what
ever. In the early trading it was subjected
to fresh selling pressure and made new low
record at 33I. Jesup d Lannon'S appear
ancc as buyers under 81 WAS reported from
the floor as something important, but they
withdrew from the crowd after taking only
1000 shares. Rutter 4 Gross were, perhaps.
the most prominent buyers, After having
made its new low record price the stock
rallied rather abruptly, partly on buying
which was called good and partly on short
L
parent scarcity Of stock on the advance was
much commented upon. Wormser ad-
vanced the price from 341l to IS. with only 100
shares. For 50 active stock to advance u
point between sales. and on a transaction Of
but 100 shares. is something unusual Rutter
4 Gross were buyers up to s4,.. After the
furry In the early trading the stock fuctuated
aimlessly between 81 and 35. 1t was selling
at a4E when the dividend was announced.
and the news didn't move il an eighth. In
the last few minutes Of trading it was bid up
again across IS.
The moderate rally that occurred in the
last twenty minutes was based largely on
the declaration of dividend of Il, per cent.
on Reading second preferred. the first the
stock has ever received. There was but one
transaction in the stock yesterday--t0O
shares at 49, n decline Of l point. That oc-
CURED in the early forenoon.
Although the volume of trading was only
a little below the average for this week. the
market seemed much narrower yesterday. IL
waited until after O'clock for the Anaiga-
mated Copper dividend, and after that was an
nounced it still waited The Reading dividend
injected some life into the final transactions.
though the influence was wholly sentimental.
as shown BY the lack OF response in the Read
ing shares themselves. There was some
commission house buying in Amalgamated
Copper and a little scattered through the
railroad list but in the aggregate it was
unimportant. Sentiment In the board room.
however. was more cheerful at the close OF
business.
Traders showed an inclination at the open
ing Yesterday to bull the railroad stocks
but were again discouraged by renewed
weakness in the industrial list, Another
sharp break in Crucible Steel on the Pitts
burg market made an unfavorable impress
sion here, and sentiment was further de-
messed by the extreme weakness OF Ameri-
can Smelling and Refining. American Loco
motive preferred and several other in
dustrials
II was reported from the floor soon after
the opening that some Of the leading traders
had taken the bear side OF the market again,
having found it impossible to bull anything
proftably. Efforts to force liquidation In
the railroad list however. produced small
results. st. Paul was attacked by room
trader who is said to be heavily short OF the
market and declined more than 1 per cent.
but il quickly recovered and closed at the
highest price for the day. showing a net gain
NJ y mar cent In the late trading Nor
folk 4 Western became an object OF attack.
Wolf Bros, Wasserman and Curre Bros.
sold it down. Baltimore d Ohio was under
pressure throughout the day and Pennsyl-
yania was also the recipient of bearsh at
tention. The selling Of these stocks was
accompanied by good deal Of bearish COM
mani hut brokers were unable 10 detect