The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-01-10
STOCK MARKET FEATURES
4 DAY OF IRREGULAR AND
 FLUCTUATING PRICES.


 ling Exchange Lower-London Dis- counts Rise-SOuthern Pacific's Firm ness--SOuthern R. R. Preferred's Drop and Its Dividend TaIIx--The Days Gossip.
 Stocks had an irregular day yester- day
 Prices moved this way and that with nothing of significance in the changes. Call money rates ruled stiff, though per cent. was the highest of the day. The average for the month of money rates is per cent. thus far.
 This continued pressure of high money flinders full efforts.
 There are also possibilities in the way of federal recommendations that do not make for larger stock com mitments
 n so far as prices moved at all on the stock exchange, their tendency was upward. Union Pacific, St. Paul, Amal- gamated Copper, and other favorite counters of speculation, recovered a point or whereabouts.
 Whatever recovery in the market oc- cured was based chiefly on the senti- ment that it was time for the market to reverse fits swing after declining 1-2 points.
 If the railroad commissioners should force the Union Pacific to sell it's holdings in competitive roads, as the Pennsylvania has done, it would in volve liquidation of Southern Pacific, of which the Union Pacific controls S9O, O,00O, ,O0O and $4O,OOOOOO of Atchison. At last weeks close the sight sterl- ing rate was 4.S5 3-S a price well above the possible gold import level. Yesterday it went below ASA 1-2 and, under ordinary circumstances, gold could be brought from London at that rate. This is not a normal movement for this time of year, when improve ment in the New York money market ought to cause repayment of loans to Londo nand a consequent rise in the pric eof remittances
 The liquidation in Southern Railway preferred was unsettling. The price
  was of a emi-investment character, and was based, according to Wall street reports, on an unnecessary fear of a reduction in the dividend on ac- count of the poor operating results.
 The bank position is certain, accord ing to all precedents, to improve great ly before the month is past, but it is eoually certain to deteriorate in Feb ruary.
 One hundred shares of New York, New Haven and Hartford stock sold yesterday at 1S9.
 Southern Pacific's resistance is one og the most satisfying phases of the market from a bull standpoint.
 The further fall in sterling exchange made bankers here extremely cautious about enlarging their investments in London drafts
 The rise in United States Steel pf was checked yesterday by the offering of fairly large lots, indicating abun- dance of floating supply. The, clique which had bid up the steel shares seemed averse yesterday to doing much.
 The increase in the preferred stock offerings recently and the point break yesterday in Southern Railway preferred, says the New York Mail, is due to the same cause that has made bonds and other securities with a fixed income depressed for months As a matter of fact, the investment security of preferred shares has been strength ened recently by the large surpluss of roads and the initial dividend pay ments on common stocks. But a steady high money rate and the small chance that preferred stock has to advance causes a shifting of investment funds to more remunerative sections of the list Quite an unusual amount of Bal timore and Ohio preferred came out yesterday also probably for the same reason.
 Market signs again proved correct as to the support in Union Pacific. After the stock hold off Tuesday to 179, some 45,000 shares changed hands within a range of a point.
 The speculation in the industrial sec- tion of the list does not broaden much. but one hears more talk of their possi- bilities than Of railroads. Steel and Copper, for instance, are closely watched.
 The ease with which the Hartman stocks rallied, indicated that for the time being little thought was being given to the interstate commerce com mission investigation.
 The Iron Age to-day will say: The output of the coke and anthracite furnaces in December was 2,236. .153 gross tons, as compared with 21S7 665 tons in November The production of the steel works furnaces has broken all records, having reached 1463, 035 tons in December. However, the out look for maintaining the December output during the current month is not very promising, since the capacity of the furnaces in operation declined from 51S.S6O tons per week on December 1 to 507S97 tons per week on January 1, 1907.
 HANDSOME GAIN.