The Washington herald., 1911-04-30
WALL STREET NEWS
Rise in Stock Values Shows
Less Fear of Courts.
SALES FREE FROM FEATURES
Bank Statement Comparatively Un-
.importnnt-No Insects Spoil Crops.
Sales Strong-Cotton Conditions
Favorable-Mexfcan Situation.

New York, April 29.-From the very
opening Of business to-day the stock
market exhibited general and decided
strength Some indications Of this were
shown yesterday when prices began to
move upward with fair degree OF
rapidity, even though throughout the
week a creeping advance had been OBJ
servable.
The rise in values to-day was the more
remarkable. of course, since the possi-
bility is just is strong now as on any
previous Saturday half-holiday since the
first of the year, that on the coming Mon
Gay the Supreme Court may announce
its decision in the antitrust cases. But
fears of this event have greatly dimin
ished in recent weeks, and 1t must be
said also that discussion regarding ths
probability Of action by Congress upon
the tariff this summer is also growing
decidedly less.
With these matters out of the way, or
at least, less in the way than they have
been Wall street is apparently finding
its optimism increased by the ease of the
money market, the great current invest
ment buying of bonds, and the satisfac-
tory, not to say glowing, crop outlook.
There was utterly no feature to the mar
ket to-day, aside from that of general
strength, and substantially the only item
of news was that referring to the con-
tinued prevalence of splendid crop
weather The bank statement was COM
paratively unimportant- The actual cash
reserve increased s633, 600 and the average
S4,3S9,0OO.
Crop Report Good.
n-o ID factor in crop
conditions is that. although there has
been plenty of moisture in all sections,
there have been no reports whatever Of
insect pests.
In addition to this the bond market is
showing renewed life and the matter en-
phasizes the fact that great reserves of
cash in the country's banking houses are
not going to stand idle for ever and must
sooner or later begin to take their natur-
al employment in turning the wheels of
enterprise. Statements of railroad earn
ings as they are going along-of which
during the week the most important
were the March reports of the Rock
Island. the Union and Southern Pacific
companies-bore witness to the fact that
the railroad companies have at least
got their operating expenses in hand and
are able to reduce decreases in gross
earnings TO much smaller decreases in
net.
AS regards Industrial affairs, financial
sentiment was firm, impressed by signs
that whatever umbrella holding that
has been lately going on in the market
for raw copper metal has ceased and
that the commodity Is now to be allowed
to seek its true level without the help
of artificial efforts to sustain 1t. Strange
to say, this led to larger buying of cop
per than ever before, with the price of
the metal still holding above II cents a
pound. 1t is trustworthy said that a
much greater quantity of copper could
still be sold If a 12-cent price could be
obtained. This certainly indicates that
conditions in the copper trade are by no
means as has been commonly made out.
Cotton on Rise.
The only commodity market in which
there was decided strength last week
was in cotton, where favoring conct-
tions for the time being are plainly In
the ascendent- These conditions are the
fact that the bulk Of last seasons cotton
has been moved to market; that the for
eign demand for the staple on account OF
extremely active trade abroad still cCn-
tinues enormous. and that there mas
latterly been little too much rain for
the growing cotton crop in the Gulf
States.
A prominent feature of the weeks news
was, of course. the steel corporations re-
port Of earnings in the March quarter
which were not as large as anticipated,
but which still showed a progressive in
crease through each month Of the quar-
ter No disappointment over the char
acter of this report was felt in con-
servative circles and the rise in the steel
stocks after the publication Of the re-
port indicated that the matter had been
considerably overdiscounted.
Mexican affairs through the week wore
a much more smiling face; and the Mex!-