The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-10-12
FINANCIAL REVIEW.

New York, Oct. 1.-The speculative element which has been holding prlces of American securities al an aavahceo price level in the professed conndence in sn early restoration or prosperhy, met A serious obstacle in the Hood or liauidation of foreign holdings or these securities which was let loose by the gathering of the war cloud Tn eastern Europe. The foreign news was received with jaunty assurance early in the week and there were fre- quent rebounds in prices each day when the days business for foreign account had been concluded.
 There are no American railroad lines running through Bulgaria" ob- served the confident brokers as they bought large lines of stocks on the declines. The cable lines, however. continued to bring orders to sell thou sands of shares of American stocks and the active demand In the exchange market to effect remittances in pay ment testified to the reality of the sell ing and the necessity of finding funds to pay for the sales thus accepted. The unprof table nature of the attempt to hold up prices merely. to afford a profit to these foreign sellers made growing impressions as the week pro- gressed and the selling pressure be- came more acute, until artificial sup- port was practically abandoned. Fa- rlous factors combined, therefore, to make the effect of Europe's political troubles rather more acute In the New York stock market than on the foreign bourses themselves. The weak ness of stocks in the New York mar ket was ascribed quite universally to the technical disadvantaRe of its po- sition and was not regarded as re- fection of any likely impairment of inherent values of American seeurt- ties. even in the event of European war. The strength in the grain mar kets was evidence of the increased de- mand expected. for at least portion of this country's commodities. For eign demand for some other lines would of course be curtalled. The ef- feet to be expected from withdrawals of gold from the New York market Is most obscure.
 The great present ease of the New York money market and the prospect of abundant supplies for normal fall requirements seem to promise a mini- mum of disturbance from any inroad upon gold holdl1gs that should seem probable.
 The course of anaies at home was almost ignored in the dominating in- fiuence of the foreign situation. There remained, however. a strong under current of confidence in the progress of improvement in business and in the prospect of its acceleration after the elections. Many industrial lines re- port a holding back of intended or
 lers pending the elections. Railroad earnings show growing advantage in the comparisons with last years show ing. Idle freight cars continue to decrease and the chairman of the car efficiency committee of the American Railway Association asserts that the present rate of traffic increase would bring a natural shortage of freight cars by the first week In December. Orders for finished products of steel are still moderate, but tho rate of iron | production on Oct. had been restored | to two-thirds of the actual output for | the banner month of October last year The months Government crop reports | are accepted as showing abundant grain crops already harvested and the | definite assurance of a plentiful cotton crop. with markets for all at profitable | figures.