The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-03-13
WALL STREET. REVIEW
SOME ACTIVITY AND Muoh
 WEAKNESS.
Liquidation in Certain Stocks snow ed Signs of Urgency, anu Pressure Had Its Enect
 on Other Securities.

New York, March 12.-The ssock mar =
 ket developed some activity tooay anr Tha
 rather positive tone Of Weahuoss.. .,.b
 weakness was largely sympa.nS,s aSne- sne pressure upon indiviouai I,lost Railway and its securities. The liquidation m tness two stocks gave signs Of urgency an. ann cost the former 4 3-S points ana tne la..es points. .The selling was unexPlalheo IsIsIa to p py any news and was s, tnUes%' dns or two large estates largely interested in the pp,,.!. ropeu.y. The obscufity of the motive Of the selIlns gave # sinister effect: FehnsyiVamiad ma was also freely pressed TOT sate anS S been in evidence above 1l2. The price touched III 1-2. which is only S-t anove the low point since the last stock issue started It's long decline. The selnng or Delaware and Hudson was ,hscrsn,;eo snPP1;eo to o the new stock offered. The market hardened on short converting in spite or the continued weakness or the two Metropolitan stocks and the closing was firm. United States Steel was rather conspicuous in the recovery. The de- crease in loans shown by the bank staIe- ment was contrary to expectations. The bank statement was or httie nhuenGe, | however. as the present condition or the money market gives little occasion for solicitude. The steadiness of Northern Securities on the curb had dissuaslve influence on traders who sold stocks yes terday to discount a possible decision in the Supreme Court Monday Total sales of bonds, par value $945, 900.
 It is far cry from the 3.202. 100 shares of stock sold on the New York Stock Ex- change on April {, 1901, to the 73.OOO shares sold on Thursday of the last week. It IS striking showing of the vicissitudes m the world of speculation and might serve by the rule of three to measure the con dition in stock exchange circles then and now. The market Is absolutely unre- sponsive to news developments, whether favorable or unfavorable and lies inert to the despair of all who look to be in stocks and bonds for their profits. At the full commission of Is of one per cent. on orders Allowed by the rules of the ex- change, Thursdays sales of 73,0O0 shares would yield about $1,S25, allowing the seller. The membership of the Stock Ex- change numbers HOO. But the meagre dealings are largely made up. Of dealings amongst members themselves or or orders by one member to another, on which the commission Is Jess, ranging down to g on 100 shares of stock. The gloom which pervades the circle in whose hands lie the conduct of the machinery of the market is then appreciatble. Three years ago a suggestion of the possibility of the purchase of a railroad system by another was sufficient to throw the mar ket into a frenzy. Even as late as April 15. 1902, the rumor that Louisville and Nashville was passing to. the control of S64. 800 shares of Southern Railway alone on that day There was scarcely rail- road stock on the list but what was re- garded as available for absorption by one of the great systems and no estimate of the price to be paid was regarded as too extravagant. The United States Steel corporation was confidently engaged as an assurance of the future stability in that trade by regulating the production and guarding against the violent fiuctua- tions in prices which had formerly dis located the industry at periodical inter- vals. The ordinary operator in Wall Street looked forward to the early as- slmilation of all the great railroad sys- tems of the country in one community of interests which would do away with destructive competition while the various industries were to be consolidated under central control which would secure their stability and attack the confident invest ment of the savings of all grades of em- profits of enterprise. From the present Standpoint of cool reflection and expe- rience the excessive speculative exalta- tior of that time seems a sufficient warn- ing in itself of the violent realization which was to follow, in accordance with the history of all similar movements. The revulsion of sentiment on the part of the outside world has been accentuated Dy the TeVolaIlOnS or the unScrupuIOuS methods employed in the formation of some of the corporations whose shares were offered to the public and the f1a- grant manipulation by which the Notation was furthered. The assumption that the legal obstacles offered to the process of combination were the direct causes of the breaking up of the carnival of specu- lation, sharpens the influence attributed to the Northern Securities decision, which Is awited with a feverish anxiety from week to week and almost day to day. The declining tendency of railroad earnings and traffic and of bank clearings, the accumulation of idle reserves in banking centres, the obscure outcome of the com ing years crop, the doubt over the supply of cotton to be finally disclosed by the present years crop, the drop in the values of country's exports as a conse- quence of the speculation level at which prices of commodities are held, the prob lem of the earnings to be achieved on the heavy expenditures now making by the railroads, the uncertainties surround ing the war in the Far East and it's possible complications and the natural unsettlement usual to a national political campaign in this country are some of the substantial grounds for the hesitation and stagnation which enshroud the securities market. The note of improve ment in the iron anu steel trade which was made known this week is of un- doubted importance and its lack of in- fiuence on the market Is evidence of the number and importance of other factors In the outlook.