The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-10
STOCK MARKET
 STILL IMPROVES Still Further Advancement In
 Prices Indicated THE CROP CONDITIONS mad Some III Effect Early In the Week, But Later Reports of Rain Were
 More Hopeful-caIl
 Money Easy.

New York, August 9.-Last week saw a renewal in force of the operations in stocks for an advance in prices as a re- fiection of the convinced opinion in the financial community of coming improve ment in values. The movement in the stock market bore many evidences of a concentrated origin and of professional devices of manipulation to stimulate the advance but it's effect In sustaining spec ulative confidence was none the less marked owing to the general belief that powerful financial groups with superior means of information regarding the course of affairs and of business pros- poets were responsible for the bulk of the operations. With the tendency to- ward improvement established, there was a disposition to assume it's steady con- tinuance to condition of profitable ac- tivity even greater than the past had witnessed.
 Occasional unsettlement was caused by the reports of damage to the spring wheat crop, and of danger to the corn crop from drought and excessive temperature. The official weather map supplied some means of relief from these anxieties by Thursday in the showing of sufficient rains in the corn belt, where the greatest need exist ed The conflict of views among experts
 over the extent of harm to the spring
 wheat crop caused some allowance to be
 made for speculative exaggeration in
 these reports, and the most trustworthy
 authorities in the trade supported this re-
 serve. The showing of the government
 report published on Friday was heralded
 with fair accuracy by the preliminary es-
 inmates of the trade authorities The be-
 ginning of harvesting operations of spring
 wheat was accepted as warrant for rely
 ing on present estimates of large and
 profitable crops of the leading cereals.
 The strong money market position in the great centers of capital, and es- : pecially in New York; is a potent factor in the determined confidence which Is be- ing reflected in the securities market. Re- serves continue to accumulate in banks to a degree that affords a feeling Of se- 1 curity in an abundance of resources to meet all requirements. Money on call In New York loaned below 1 per cent for the first time In four years. A survey of sales of new bond issues of $1,OOO,OOO ana upward each since the first of the year shows the substantial prograss made In the supplying of new capital require ments of the railroads. Trustworthy es- inmates place the aggregate par value of bonds of American corporations sold since the first of the year at upward of $5OO,- 100000. Most of these were strongly se- cured issues, many of them hrst mort gages. Large blocks of the most impor- tant issues were placed abroad and sub scriptions to these have been drawn on ] in the exchange market to very large ] amount in the last two weeks.
 | Owing to this condition large influx of | gold to New York in the fall would not
 be expected, ana could be commanded to
 relieve any excessive demand from the in- terior upon New York for currency. These safeguards about the money situa- 1 tion underIie the feeling of speculative l confidence.