The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-31
STOCKS MAKE BRISK UPWARD MOVEMENT Latter Part of Session Is De-
 cidedly Strong ADVANCES HOLD WE'LL Railroad Issues Take the Lead in Ac- tivity and Showing of December
 Reports Is Considered
 Very Good
ADVANCES HOLD WE'LL

New York, January 30.-Trading re- f1ected no well defined trend on the stock exchange today until the afternoon ses- sion, when there was brisk upward movement Throughout the remainder of -the session the market showed decided strength with consistent improvement throughout the list although at no time was there any marked degree of activity Gains were well maintained to the close, which was firm at level well above the final prices of last week.
 Railroad issues were especially strong and in this connection much emphasis was placed on December reports of several of the largest systems Their showing en- couraged the belief that they had entered upon a more prosperous period, although optimism was tempered by the recolec- tion that December of 1909, with which comparisons was made, was an unfavora- ble one for the railroads, owing to severe weather conditions,
 The Hill and Hartman stocks were particularly strong and active and Read ing, St. Paul, Lehigh Valley and New York Central all responded to the upward movement. United States Steel was un- der pressure during the morning, as were others of the active issues, but recov- cred later and crossed 79.
 Forecasts of tomorrow's quarterly re- port of the steel corporation contain the predictions that earnings for the last quarter of 1910 will prove to have been less than ss0o00,0oO and that December earnings may have fallen below $S090, ,00O
 Although the earnings of the corpora tion have not been less than S,000,O00 in any month since June, 19OS the effect of forecasts of this nature was offset by the belief that marked betterment had taken place in the iron and steel indus try since the first of the year.
 Copper shares, which for some time have been shrinking in value under the snfavorable influence of trade reports, were stronger today ,Amalgamated Cop per advancing a point. The fertilizer shares-Amercan Agricultural Chemical and Virginia Carolina Chemical-achieved substantial advances to the accompani- ment of reports that the potash dispute with Germany was in the way of adjust ment.
 The provision of the proposed reciproc- ity treaty with Canada, which would admit cotton oil to the Dominion un- der favorable conditions, was doubtless responsible for gain of nearly ? points in American Cotton AOif
 Northern Pacific December returns were conspieuousy favorable. With a record of S2,41S000 decrease in operating income for the last half of the year it's figures for last month show greater gross earn ings and lower operating expenses, which combine t6 produce an Increase in net operating income Sof $S41 .0OO and in -operat- ing revenue of s644000
 Union Pacific reported an increase of s37,000 in net for December and South- ern Pacific an increase of 5000 for the same month. Although the gain for Southern Pacific was only nominal. it's showing was encouraging in view of the fact that for the first half of the year '-there was a decrease In net of $164100o.
 The feature of the bond market was ex- tensive trading in the new city Az per cent bonds. Two blocks of s1,000,000 each sold around $1.0lB and there were several other salas of large amounts. The mar ket was firm. Total sales, par value, s6353,000
 United States bonds were unchanged on call