Evening star., 1908-02-03
Rock Island Weakness Dis
turbed Brokers Today.
AFFECTED MARKETS TONE
Active Railways Showed Declines In
Early Hours.
MARKED RALLYING POWER
Great Irregularity Impaired to
Market as a Whole-Many
Rumors Current.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK. February 3.--Wall street
was pcrturbed to no small extent this
morning by the appearance of pro-
nouuced weakness in the Rock Island
issues. and notably in the Rock Island I
per cent and per cent bonds. and con-
fidcnce was not materially restored by
official utterances to the effect that
there was nothing threatening in the
finances or general affairs of the COM
pany.
II was apparently the case that the
break in the Rock Island issues was one
of the chief factors in the unsettled tone
OF the market at large, but generally
weak tone was shown right at the outset
of the dealings and previous to the ap-
pcarance of the liquidation in the Rock
Island securities.
The markets initial tone was in the
main little more than a renewal OF the
tendencies which were exhibited IN the
closing dealings of last week, ana as was
the case then the message OF the Presl-
dent transmitted to Congress on FRIDAY
was commonly named as dccouItiiS ioi
the course o. prices.
With the course of the morning many
of the active railway stocks showed de-
Clines in excess of one point, but the mar
het showed small degree OF raiiylnS
power and these occasional upward move
ments impaired appearance OF great
irregularity to the market as a whole.
Features of Railway List.
Conspicuous features of the railway list
were New York Central. Pennsylvania. st.
Paul. Canadian Pacific. the Hill stocks,
Reading Southern Pacific and Union "a
cifc The two last-named issues were,
perhaps, specifically affected by the open
ing of the governments case against the
so-called Union Pacific merger, and. In
fact rumors that similar proceedings
might be instituted against the Rock Is
land system accounted in part for the pro-
nounced weakness in that quarter
While uSon the subject of rumors It
might be added that various sinister re-
ports of one sort or another were cur
rent during the day bearing upon the al
fairs of firms and financial institutions,
and these also played some part In snap
ing speculative sentiment
Broadly sreaking the Industrial and
miscellaneous shares showed flrmer tend
encies than were exhibited by the rail-
wav list. and the United States steel is
sues were notably steady. notwithstand-
ing the general expectation and belief that
the earnings statement for the current
quarter will make very poor showing.
Amalgamated copper and the other active
industrial stocks were likewise comDara-
lively firm.
Bond Market Heavy.
The bond market was generally heavy.
being doubtless Influenced. to some ex-
tent by the almost sensational decline in
the Rock Island issues. The Interborough
Metropolitan ~ per cents broke smartly,
and good deal of pressure was evident
in the dealings in the Brooklyn Rapid
Transit and American Tobacco bonds.
Money market circumstances showed
little further alteration, notwithstanding
the large loss suffered SO far this week
by the banks in their operations with
the subtreasury. and the foreign exchange
market was somewhat reactionary
The London stock market. including the
American department. was quite irregular
the most striking feature being the con-
tinued rise in consols. Operations here
for foreign account showed small eX-
cess of purchases
Despite the seemingly marked weak
ness which the market showed upon oc-
casions, close observers of the dealing
were of the opinion that operations for
the short account were greatly in ex-
cess of the genuine liuuidation