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Show CONDITIONS IMPROVE SLOWLY Reports Made of Large Sales of Kef ined Copper at -Higher Price. New' York, March 7. The Iron and j steel movements of tho last week In j the stock market were the reflection'! of the uniformed sentiments of tho . traders. Dealing were small and j largely In the hands of professional j operators. The disturbing Influence j brought upon the steel market Is said I to have passed to some extent and In that trade conditions were report- , ed to have cleared somewhat. Trice concessions in steel products wero reported as still in power and the pointing of wage reductions by the Lackawanna Steel company opened open-ed up that phase of the process of re- ' adjustments going on in Jhe steel in-, dustry and Improvement In copper ( have been made. j Reports of some largo sales of re- , lined copper at price above tho recent re-cent average and of specifications i promising yet larger transactions I were circulated In a demonstrative manner and market quotations were1 marked up in London and New York. Criticism of advance as manipulated and suspicion cast upon the reports of sales had the effect of causing sharp elapses in the prices of the copper cop-per industrials. There followed then reports of a collapse in the copper market and of open market conditions which met with counter I criticism, threw the whole situation' into confusion. con-fusion. ... The labor outlook was clouded by the preparations making for the slrug- ' gle in tho anthracite trade Incident to the termination of . the wage agreement agree-ment on March 31.. The demands formulated on the one hand by the miners and the argument against the claims published by the operators rep-- rep-- resented the grounds of difference. An incident was tho circulation of a rumor ru-mor of the intention to shut down tho 'nnthracite mines on April 1, until a 'settlement with the miners should be secured. '. The pendency-of the commodities Sase decision is one of' various inci- . t ents which directed attention to the consideration of government proceed-! Ings against corporations. The' inau- I guratlon of the new president was I studied by Wall street for its bearing j on mis suoject lor tne most part, i ne determination expressed by Mr. Tiit j tp. adhere to his predecessor's poll- i cles had been known from public ut- J terances of the president and afford-e'd afford-e'd no surprise. The financial com-" munlty professes to feel an assur- : ance of more strict regard for legal j restrictions on the . part ot the. new ; president than has been the rule, and ' of corresponding gains in orderly ad- aptatlon to prospective changes. There ; is not lacking an undertone of questioning ques-tioning whether the new policy may not- prove- a more effective instrument instru-ment against corporations than the j old. The refusal of the New York I public service commission to grant the modifications asked for in the I terms of permission of the Erie bond isue was another incident, showing I the new bond in which . corporation actions are held. From the Interstate I commerce commission came another 1 note in the same tone in the opinion handed down in . the Spokane rate case. The rule there laid down for forming conclusions as to the reason-I reason-I ableness of freight rates and the ex-i ex-i pliclt pronouncement that recent Great Northern and Northern Pacific profits had been excessive, opened up I a field for conjecture regarding the business of all the great transcontinental transconti-nental railroads. The financial 'community keeps an attentive eye on the crop news and the questionable state of the winter wheat clop is regarded as offering ground for caution in accepting the confident assumptions ot the future. Money rates have declined again and j ready absorption of new bond Issues is si ill reported. |