The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-02-19
STOCKS HESITATE
 IN THE ADVANCE Selling in AmaIgamated and Anaconda Curbs Trading BIG FINANCIAL FOLLOWING Traders Turn to the Short Side of the Market or Reduce Holdings on
 Disappointing Gold
 Movement.
BIG FINANCIAL FOLLOWING

New York. February 1S.-The dealings in today's stock market appeared to be largely professional in their origin. The movement was hesitating and irregular in the efforts of the professional traders to grope for an effective leadership. The in- cident that had most to do with curbing the demand which started early prices upwards was the character of the selling in Amalgamated Copper and Anaconda' This was so decisive as to indicate de- termination to put restraint on any up- ward movement of those stocks In the market. Such a demonstration was inter- preted as intended to. herald the market important financial following.
 The traders turned to the short side of the market or reduced long commitments in response to this supposed admonluoh' The market also was confronted with the news that the Bank of England had agaln secured all of the arrivals of South Al rican gold in London thus belylng the confident expectation of last week that the inward movement of gold would pe- gin this week. This represents the pro- gress of efforts in the various hlaheldi markets to work out the nice balance In their several needs with as little unsettle- ment as possible. New 1orks reqaife- Inents for additional cash reserves are balanced against the necessity Of further resort to foreign money markets for capl- tai advances which any upset in foreign money markets would interfere Wlth' Sterling exchange in Paris rose vigorous ly today, and this is attributed to remit tances from Paris to London In payment of subscriptions to American railroad note n credits in London Is thus going on, and the absence of competition against the Bank of England for the gold in London was again believed to be due to defer ence of New York bankers to the needs of the London market. The London Stausl has to say on this subject:
 ''The furry which arose last autumn re- suited entirely from the fact that New York was unaware of London having reached the limit of it's gold resources. Had New York been closely acquainted with the situation here, gold imports would probably have been stopped before the advance in the Bank of England rate to per cent became necessary"
 This means that shipments of gold from Londeh to New York are dependent only on any real need in the New York mar lIet. The days rpmors today were largely dealing with supposed coming note issues of which the extent and variety were said  ments followed the rumors. The compile tion of national bank returns to the comptroller received from Washington to- day claimed the principal interest on ac- count of the increasing excess of the loan item over the individual deposits In fact compared with previous statements of November 1, there has been actual shrink age in the deposit item of over $i74,OO0, 0O0 while loans have expanded in the same time S97, ,222. .3s3. and over January last year upwards of $S92, GOO 900. It is because of this movement of the deposit item that the banks. while showing decline of some S6000, ,000 since November in their cash holdings, are able to report an increase in proportion of reserve to deposits from 2O.SO per cent to 21 .53 per cent.
 Money was firm today both for call and time loans, partly on account of the fail ure to engage any gold in London for New York. The prospect of the early re- sumption of the interstate commerce con- missions inquiry into the Hartman rail road combination was made something of in the depressed movement of the mar ket.
 The selling paused at intervals, but was renewed before any important receveries ensued, except the final covering move- ment amongst the bears. which brought the market to a firm closing.
 Bonds were heavy. Total sales, par value, s1,5S6OCo.
 United States bonds unchanged on call.