The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-04-27
5T|V|TY ATTENDS
 EAL|NGS IN STOCKS
lding Again Proves Spec. ulatiye Feature = Ad-
 vance Noted in Steel

New York, April 26-Dealings in the stock market today were attended by greater strength, breadth and activity. Unlike yesterdays session, when a very considerable part of the trading was made ID of specialties and securities of sec 'ndary importance today's business .ern- braced vast majority of the specula- i've favorites and other stocks of recog- nized merit Reading was again the spectacular feature rising to 17sls. which. with it's recent quarterly dividend, brought Inc stock up to IT'S. or 5ss points above It's previous record price, achieved in 1910. 1 Sales of Reading for the day aggregated 2I,oO0 shares, or about 25 per cent of the whole. Quite naturally Reading s fise was accompanied by various reports and much conjecture but for all this ihere was neither official sanction nor en- rouragement Nevertheless, the belief gains ground that the company in the not too distanst future will avail itself of long deferred opportunity to con fer some form of benefit upon its share holders. Lehigh Valley, whose com munity of interest with Reading is we'll known, was another fairly strong stock. but the higher priced coalers shared only slightly in the general advance. The ease with which Union Pacific. United State Steel and other Important issues >advanced, seemed to be proof of the ex. lstence of a long short interest rather than any belated recognition of intrinsic values. Earnings of the Hartman lines for March. published after the early rise, were disappointing. Union Pacific lost s4so,oo0 in net and Southern Pacific s214,- 900. This makes the formers net gain less for the nine months of the fiscal year s3,74O,OO0 and Southern Pacific's $2,- 747000.
 The copper and affiliated issues took prominent part in the days operations. Amalgamated more than recovered its increased quarterly dividend in the first hour It Is not unlikely that stimulus was imparted to these stocks by official statistics from Washington, indicating a total of exports and imports of the metal for this year of not less than s15o, o,O0o,- 900 or two and a half times more than a brief 10 years ago. What is more im- i, portant over 75 per cent of the total rep resents shipments out of this country.
 American Beet Sugar was another stock to promptly regain its dividend, while American Can, common and preferred, established new records, with the usual heavy dealings in the former. Other ac- tive and strong specialties included Amer lean Sugar. American Locomotive, Amer ican Writing Paper. preferred, United States Rubber and Sears-Roebuck The impulse back of some of these stocks was clearly of manipulative origin, but seemed none the less effective.
 Prices manifested disposition to sag and business was less active in the last hour, but not until Reading had added another fraction to it's previous best. Reactions extended to points in Read ing and a point or whereabouts in other prominent issues. but the closing, while dull, was strong.zs h.. 1 ss-,
 Among the favorable influences of the day was the progress reported in the engineers dispute and the monthly re- port of this countrys foreign commerce Total domestic exports for March exceed ed S202, 100000, against $15S,67 GOO in the same month last year. Imports for the month were s1,760,o00 greater than in 1911, the principal gains being'in crude and pre- pared foodstuffs.
 Estimates dealing with the weekly movement of cash were conflicting, with the probabilities favoring a little more than nominal changes. Moneys received from the interior appear to be offset by large special payments to the local sub treasury. Rates on call and for various maturities were practically unchanged with only moderate demand
 A Bonds were irregular and failed to re- fleet the movement in stocks. Total sales, par value. aggregated s266o.0OO.
 United States government bonds un- changed on call.