The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-03-05
rlyANcIAL AND couMERcIAL.
SArrRpAr. March 4


The trading in the stool, market to-doy
vas considerably less than it hrs been rc-
GENTLY on tho saturday half holiday. Lon
= sent over small and rather irregular
u5i changes in the prices OF our securities,
the foreign markets rejecting on the one
Arnd the favorable influence Of the salts
factory conclusion OF the Paris financial
saltlerneni and on the other the unfavor-
able effect OF fepr7 over the Russian stua-
ton. Events Of the moment seem to point
Ia fkAl and disastrous ending OF the Rus
SIM campaign in Manchuria. although
Tie RussiGn leader there las heretofore
.hown hims,lf possessad OF mastery
abilities in the way OF avertng dcica; for
his forces and Of successfully retroating
from tho onset OF his antagonists. Sur
render ~ the Russian army would naturally
have both q good and bad rcsult - far
a. The financial markets are concerned.
l. would mean a cessation OF the war
and that would be an immense relief
but it might also carry with II seri-
Gu financial md social Disturbances in
Erssia News here to-day Of import
ance to tho market. aside from the
bank statement. comprised only the pub
lcation Of the earnings for the December
quarter Of the New York City Railway
Company, which is the new name for the
Metropolitan Street Railway interest, show
ing deficit of $50i eco and the announce
ment that the Western railway freight
rate war had after a fashion, been settled.
The Now York City Railway Companys
gross earnings increased. however prov
ing that its loss through tho competition
of tire subway system was not great The
hdnk statement was very unfavorable.
Loans increased sl3, 900, cash decreased
81, 40, 100 and the surplus reserve fell so,250-
575. bringing the surplus down to 3S,3S9.700,
against $40 ,oi9 800 last year. This OK
hbi. which was a good deal worse than
anybody had anticipated was. IL was said,
caused by the payment Of their bligations
in full during tho week by the subscribers
70 tho southern Pacific Company's new
refunding bond issue; il see ms 10 portend
nevertheless higher rates fer money in tho
near futuc. and clearly shows relatively
strained condition OF banking credit Prices
of stocke here which at the opening of
ms rket were slightly below yesterdays
closing fgures. slowly hardened until after
the back statement appeared. when they
became for the most part strong No
doubt much of the strength was fairly at
tributsble to the covering OF short con-
tracts. il being pretty nearly the invariable
practice OF operators for the fall nowadays |
to buy in each day the commitments for
tho decline which they put out tho day /
before Other ob5ervers venturcd the |
opinion that the upward movement was !
manipula;iye effort deAg ned TO Offset the I
4. A = + .f
produce a strong opening on Monday.
Prices OF stocks at tho end Of the week.
despite all the large market transactions.
suffered little net change, provoking the .
suspicion that operations during the week
have been essentially Of liquldating char
acter. General optimistic feeling regard
ing the market is not now, at any rate. az
strong as it was week ago Commission
houses are as rule not very jealous in their
encouragement OF new ventures In the
market, and many houses are either requir
ing stop loss orders 10 DO entered upon pur- /
chases Of stock or are asking that heavy /
margins he deposited by customers whose
financial resources are not fully known to
Thorn. The adjournmen: OF Congress Is
regarded as good thing for Wal Street
and there seems no break in toe favorable
business and industry. There is no quail /
fcation Of the pleasant reports from the I
iron and steel trade The better weather
has helped the sale OF spring merchandise. /
and the journeying of an unusually large
number of people to New Orleans and Wash
ington for the Mardi Gras and Inauguration /
festivities has, 1t appears, brought custo-
mers into the large wholesale mercantile
houses in the Eastern distributive centres
Bank ciearings for the week have been the /
larges; on record. this being due, however /
to the immense speculative turnover of
stocks in Wall Street. The condition Of she
winter wheat crop so far "a il has de-
veloped is promising, and the cotton spin
ming industry which has long been de-
pressed. appears 10 be looking up.
A curious anomaly in the iinanc al stua-
ton is the failure OF the copper stocks
in the Boston market TO advance proper
tonately with tho rise in the price OF raw
copper. The copper trade is now In the
strongest position that it has been for
decade and there is no prospect that for
long time TO come raw copper metal win sell
al price below is cents a pound "a figure
which means enormous profits to all copper
producing concerns Heretofore my
thing resembling this state OF affairs has
resulted in a burst OF speculation in copper
stocks, yet the market for the shares of
these companies remains dull and neglected
70 an extraordinary degree No doubt
speculative manipulation, II it was set at
work, could change all this; but the facts
they exist strongly suggest the ques-
ton whether there has been any real
and notable increase in a popular spec
uative spirit throughout the country
and whether the recent rise on our own
Stock Exchange has not been largely
forced and artificial. Small attention has
been paid In Wall Street recently to the |
fall in the price Of wheat and coffee II
is known that these events produced heavy |
speculative losses in certain directions.
and there is substantial reason for be-
lieving that much OF the selling Of stocks |
that has taken place recently has been
caused by the necessity OF raising money
TO protect unlucky ventures for the rise
in these commodity options. matter. too, I
that Wall Street hardly seems to be needing
as it should is the proposal in our State
Legislature to tax stock transfers Per- !
haps this Indifference is due TO the fact |