The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-06-21
LARGER SALES IN TIE STOCK MARKET , Still In the Hands of Pro-
 feSsionals UNDERTONE SEEMS HARD Weekly Crop Bulletin Was as Much Responsible as Anything for
 the Days Advance In Prices. e
UNDERTONE SEEMS HARD

New York, June 2O-More stocks were sold in the two hours before noon today than during the full session of yesterday. In the afternoon there was contraction In the rate of activity but the sales for the day rose to larger total than for any day since early last week.
 The market obviously was still largely fn professional hands but the traders operated more freely and there were in- ifcations of the reentry into the market of some of the larger semi-professional speculators who have refrained from ae- tivity for some time past. The buying movement was largely of an experimental character The market was given clear evidence for several days of hard un- dertone. The volume of offerings has been almost nothing and no liquidation is induced by any professional pressure. The assertion is made and evidently cred ited amongst the professional operators that the holding of stocks by commission houses at this time are at an unusually low ebb and that weakly margined hold ings have been almost completely clear ed up The technical strength of such position makes the market invulnerable 
 to ordinary attack
 The eagerness of the professionals to see prices move in one direction or the other prompts them always to follow the line of least resistance. They were inclined today to put prices up until the weight of offerings attracted by the ad- vances did prove an obstacle. Reallzlng in Reading was very manifest and this fact was a palpable check to the opera tion for the advance. Some general effect on sentiment was produced also by the realizing in the Japanese bonds, as these have been the real leaders of the small speculati ton for some time past. Prop ably the weekly crop bulletin of the weather bureau was as much responsible as any other one thing for the advancing tendency of prices. The reports on the corn and cotton crops were especially cheerful and railroads having a large percentage of traffic in those commodl- ties were helped accordingly The winter wheat carriers were not so responsive owing to reports of immediately unfav- orable weather conditions. In addition to the corn and cotton influence, the re- tention of the 1 per cent dividend rate on Tennessee coal was accepted as an lnueA of favorable conditions in the southern iron industry. There was also some re- }newal of the gossip of an intended ln- crease in the BoulsNiHe anu NasiiN Niiie dividend rate. Published reports or the undiminished activity of steel mills in the Pittsburg district gave the impulse to the rise in United States steel preterfeu'
 The reason assigned for the strength ,r inc Metropolitan stocks is the in- creased financial influence and authority assured to lne leading financier in those cornoratfons by his connection with the Fotlitabie Life Assurance society. Satis- faction was professed over the better un, derstanding reported between France ana csarr,a,,x, hut foreigners were selling off .tool,s to small extent in this market. Foreign money markets however, eased off and the result was the reappearance sf banlxers' exchange bills in the local market incident to the process or lending foreign funds here The supply of funqs for call loans continued very aoundant but the tone for time loans IS haiueiliiie'