The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-10-31
SIOCK MARKET FEATURES THE CHIEF FEATURE WAS IN-
 TENSE DULLNESS.

Steel COmmOn's Dividend Remains at
 One-HaIf Per Cent.-Unflled Orders
 of Steel the Largest Ever KnoWn--
 Call Money Goes Highcr--The Bet-
 ting on EIectiOn--The Wide SpecuIa-
 tion in Nipissing-Other Gossip of
 the Day.
 Yesterdays stock market was in- tensely dull.
 At times business seemed wholly sus- pended
 The total transactions were only 317,- 900 shares.
 Wall street is waiting for the cleo tions, and General Apathy was In com- mand yesterday.
 United States Steel declared 1-2 per Gent. dividend-same as before-but this was not known until some time after Che market closed.
 A New York dispatch says the direc-, aors of the United States Steel corpor- ation declared a quarterly dividend of one-half of one per cent on the com mon stock This is the same as the last dividend on the common stock. The directors also declared the regular quarterly dividend of 3-4 per cent. on the preferred stock. The thrilled orders exceed in volume those of any other quarterly report by the corporation. The highest previous record reported was on December 51, 1905, when they amounted to 7,605,088 tons
 Nearly as much business was done on the curb yesterday as on the stock ex- change.
 It was a market in which gossip was so scarce that there were no features.
 There was scarcely enough fluctua. ton to give scalping profits to the trad CTS This means, of course, that com- mission houses are doing next to noth- ing.
 The following banks have arranged to take out additional circulation under Secretary Shaw's plan, thereby permit ting the substitution of savings bank bonds for United States bonds as se- curity for government deposits, name ly: Hanover National $5OO,OOO, Chase National $4O0,000 and Mercantine Ma tional $2OOOQO
 Some talk was heard of meeting of Chesapeake and Ohio directors to-day to declare higher dividend. The stock did not give much sign of it.
 While some persons were non-com- initial yesterday on the question of the probability of an increase In the Penn sylvania dividend tomorrow, the con- sensus of opinion among the usually we'll informed was that there would be no increase.
 It was stated yesterday that the con- cern has this year loaned $1OQ00,000 to three railroads, half of which went to the Pennsylvania.
 An advance in call money to 6 per cent. was the beginning of the Novem- Der first disturbance growing out of the large interest and dividend payments to-morrow. Brokers are likely to pay # or 8 per cent. before the end of the week.
 Japanese 1-2s were strong, and so were Rock Island As and Southern Pa ciflc 4s. On the other hand, the Wa bash debentures lost nearly all of the gain they made on better terms in the reorganization, and Steel 5s were soft. They sell ex-coupon to-morrow.
 A feeling that bank loans will expand on Saturday in the same proportion that they contracted last week makes money lenders cautions.
 The attendance on the exchange yes- terday was the smallest in many weeks.
 Money conditions were very little changed.
 The sales ran above 22000 shares for the day. In the whole of last week 6,400 shares changed hands; the two preceding weeks showed 6,5OO and 4,1O0, respectively. The income bonds rose with the stock.
 Pennsylvania lost 11-2 points and this carried prices off in general, though there had been no response on Monday to the 1-2 point rise in the stock.
 As the day wore on the traders be- gan to figure how they could beat the election. With the odds at to on Hughes 1t was suggested that man might bet on Hearst and buy some stock that would not go down more than points in the event of a demo- cratic victory
 The excitement over Nipissing mining stock continues. This stock Is being bought by small investors and specula- tors in every city east of the Missss ippi and as far south as the cotton belt. Going further orders for it and kindred mining shares are coming from all of the great speculative eenters of Europe, which have grown tired of South Afri- can mines as a gamble and are turning to new fields.
 Betting on the Broad street curb tended to increase confidence since aft CT early odds of 1-2 to 1 on Hughes as against Hearst, the odds wldened to to again on the former candidate, Hearst money was scarcer.
 A spasm of activity in American Ice Securities carried it well above recent figures. Those who are buying it now are depending on a per cent. dividend, though this is not likely to be declared until too late to be used as a campaign argument.
 The extent of the stagnation in stocks around midday was indicated by the fact that when anybody wanted to sell a hundred or two shares of some active issues, such as Union Pacific, he often had to take Is to 1-4 less than the pre- vioug price. Union Pacific reacted 1-4