The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-02
PRESSURE EEXERTED
 AGAINST U. s. STEEL
Poor Showing Made By Cor. p0ration Foremost Factor
 in Shaping Stocks

New York, May 1.-The surprisingly poor showing made by the United States Steel corporation, for the first current quarter of the year. was the foremost factor in shaping the course of today's stock market. That the financial district was hardly prepared for such an -unfa- vorable exhibit was amply attested by the pressure exerted against Steel com mon shares throughout the session. In conservative quarters the opinion pre- vailed that 1t might have been the part of wisdom had the directors decided to reduce the dividend, only an infinitesti- nal part of which was earned It goes without saying that for the next few weeks discussion is certain to deal large 1y with the per cent disbursement, but inasmuch as the present and succeeding quarters of the year are likely to be bet ter rather than worse. conjecture and surmisc may prove to be premature.
 Other overnight developments, includ- Ing further suspension of proposed in- creased freight rates by the interstate commerce commission, recurrent serious ness of conditions in the southwest by reasons of heavy rains and some more
 
 to the feeling of depression produced by the steel statement. Of all these the short interest was not slow to take ad- vantage of much of the early selling was traceable to that source.
 The markets one sided and narrow character was shown in the undue promi- nence of one or two speculative favorites. Fully one-third of the business of the first two hours was in steel, which with Union Pacific furnished half of the en- tire dealings for that period. Steel had a wide" opening, it's initial offerings be- ing represented by block of 15,000 shares at 701a to 707s as compared with 72S with yesterdays close. Union Pacific also displayed acute weakness al the out set, but recovered much of it's loss, only to fall lower than before at the next de- cline. In fact, Union Pacific rivalled steel in point of weakness the better part of the session. The anthracite shares, with American Smelling. which was active and strong on rumors of an increased dividend. were almost the only issues of prominence to shake off the re- actionary tendency, conspicuous else where
 Prices made partial recovery before noon, but in the early part of the after noon another general selling movement sent the average level lower than before. After that the market had frequent periods of idleness and indefinite trend. An abrupt decline of points In Amer ican Tobacco following an earlier rise of ? points was one of the few noteworthy features of the special group. That stocks decline was attributed to dsap- pointment over resumption of dividends at the 10 per cent rate, where more had been expected.
 In the last hour the general list moved toward the best quotations of the day, with smelling and American Can the more pronounced issues of strength Final d. alirgs brought out more activity and increasing strength. which not only ef- faced a large majority of the previous losses but resulted in numerous net gains.
 Conditions and rates in the local money market remain unchanged, with in- creased offerings of commercial paper. Otherwise the inquiry for cash continued light According to the latest report sub mitted to the controller of the currency, New Yorl's national banks are strong in reserves, though somewhat below the showing made under the previous condi- ton call.
 In the way of railroad reports for March, the Pennsylvania system increased its net by $45,000 on eastern lines with a gain of S102,o00 on the lines west of Pitts burg. Boston and Maine's net gain was $103,000. Illinois Central fell off by s26O.- coo, Missouri Pacific by sl27,000. and Dela- ware. Lackawanna and Western, s61, ,000
 The bond market was slightly easier, with narrow movements in the prominent issues. Total sales, par value, s2,271 GOO.
 United States government bonds were rf1 1a oad nf1 col1