The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-04-11
STOCK MARKET FEATURES
UNCERTAINTY VAS 4 PREVAIL ING STATE OF THINGS.

Stocks weak, Then Strong, Then Weak
 Again-London's Attitude-Manipu-
 Iation-The Favorable Winter Wheat
 Report = Amalgamated COpper's Strensth-R. R. Earnings in West In-
 creasing-Price. of Copper Higher
 Other Gossip.
 The stock market started generally with a. lower range of values during the last few minutes. Then there were all around recoveries under the lead of Northern Pacific, which rose sharply on the curb, with gain of five points by midday, on very heavy buying Va rious grangers also showed much strength, Union Pacific and St. Paul being noteworthy cases. Amalgamated Copper was the strongest issue on the exchange and rose under very heavy absorption. The. expectation that the government crop report on winter wheat would show excellent conditions was responsible in a way for the rise in the granger group. The report which came out last night was favorable, as expected. Arbitrage firms sold 55,OO0 shares in the market yesterday, chiefly the grangers, including Union Pacific.
 The London settlement is expected to show another large account open in Americans, and this probably had some thing to do with the London selling to- day. But sentiment in the English market was adversely affected in the early operations by the decline in French rentes, and continued selling of securities by Paris to London, which resulted in weakness in sterling at Paris and further withdrawals of gold at London for French account.
 The uneasiness that prevailed at Par is was due to anxiety as to the outcome of the expected battle between the Rus sian and Japanese naval forces, as it recognized that a Russian defeat might bring about severe depression.
 The buying which put up prices dur ing the morning and early afternoon did not come, it was thought, from the strong sources which have given sub stance to similar movements in the past. It arose very obviously in highly speculative quarters
 Indications that a favorable report on the condition of winter wheat was being discounted yesterday afternoon were apparent in stocks like Missouri Pacific, Texas Pacific and Atchison The Gould shares were quite strong. Missouri Pacific was helped by the Kansas state report on wheat. The Gates party is believed to be very bull ish on the grangers and Southwestern railroad issues, :. M %.
 The strength of Reading was said to be due to the resumption of bull opera tfons by the Philadelphia clique. At all events bull tips on the stock began to circulate freely.
 The movement in Amalgamated Cop per was entirely due to the operations of a pool, whoseactivity was referred to last week, The street is generally expecting an increase in the dividend rate to percen or more.
 The trading in Un. Pacific was some- what confusing. The strength of North ern Securities on the curb and the sem sational rise in Great Northern prefer red made the street indulge in, talk of the Union Paciflc's paper profit on it's holdings of Northern Securities.
 The London market was stagnant, all attention being centered in the. news from the Baltic fleet and in the budg- ct. .1., s.3s
 k In London yesterday Copper opened more hopeful in the market, the re- ports of labor troubles in the Lake Superior district, leading to a discus- sion of possible interference with SUD- plies. phe metal advanced $1.25 sellers, but quickly reacted. The price rallied slightly later, and closed at 67 7-S.
 The days happenings were calculat- ed to remind cool observers that the market has entered an extremely spec ulative stage. ~- s3f
 A special from Chicago to the New York Evening Post says: The indica- tions are that the March earnings of Western railroads will make good showing. All available information tends to show that they increased over those of February, while operating ex- penses were cut down. They also made good gains over March last year, while thus far in April they are satisfactory. with operating expenses down to the normal. In the grain traffic there was
 -T..z ..--
 that has been on for months at the low rates. Now that thelatter are out there is a reduction in grain shipments from the west, and the next few weeks is expected to show a good reduction.
 Packing house. products are moving from the west in larger volume than in. recent years. In fast there has not been a year on record when the deliv- cries here were so large.