The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-03-08
WALL STREET REVIEW
A SHORT LIVED sPURT OF Ac-
 TIvITY IN MARKET.
Nervousness Apparent, Because or Belief That the Supreme court Would Decide Northern Securities Company
 Case.

New York, March 7.-There was short-lived spurt of activity in the stock market this morning and some appear
 ance of nervousness owing to tne senea conviction that the Supreme court WouIu hand down it's decision today Tn the Northern Securities case. This supposi- ton extended SO far as London ana ar fected Americans there before our open ing. Apparently the expectation was saoh ooilled before the supremS, Snc,,nes % were are pretty well recovered When It was de 1nitely announced that the decision would not come today, the market re-
 iapsed into degree Of stagnaIion that nat has not been equaled before since the present era of dulness set in: Northern Securities itself was forced down nearly two points in the curb market and then rallied when the further delay in the of waiting and suspense thus involved disgusted operators of all classes and they refrained almost entirely from doing anything In the market. Foreign mar kets reflected additional Encouragement on this market the relief afforded by the successful Paris settlement gave way to renewed anxiety over the beginning or the London settlement while the mining department was hurt by liquidation from the continent indicating the continued uneasiness there. Our own market was confronted with the. definement of the lines in the freight war as embracing the wide problem of differentials as between Gulf and Atlantic ports for grain traffic of western lines and between New York and Southern Atlantic ports for lake gran traffio of trunk lines. The com tentfons of the various parties have taken on such an air of acerbity and have ar alive apprehension the possible contin- gencies which may arise. The bitterness of the conflict for freight trafic gives added importance to the tone of the frciUhf 1as oP traffic which Is of some discouragement over the lightness of new business developing, in spite or progress toward clearing up freight congestion due to weather borrowings by railroads, indicated by the loan expansion in the bank state ment, thus comes in for additional criti- cism. An outlay of capital avowedly of demand upon facilities established by last years business, has It's wisdom call ed In question by reason of the un- deniable shrinkage in that rate of busi- note issues on which these railroad bor. rowings are effected are to be funded ultimately and the future capacity or absorption of the securities market, even In. is that far discounted. It Is argued also that the comparatively high rate of interest exacted by bankers on these rail- road notes is due to the prospect that they may De asked to accept bonds for their extension in funded form, with the market value of the bonds questionable In the last half hour of the market the short interest accumulated on the de- cline of this morning and Saturday covered their contracts and lifted a mum. Der of prominent stocks a point over Saturday. The closing was irregular be- low the best. Bonds were steady; total sales par value $1,270,O0O. United States bonds were unchanged on call.
 
 New York Stock Iiat.