New-York tribune., 1886-05-24
MONEY 1NU BUSINESS


able t, the owners of railway securities. Grain
went down, and stocks went up. Lower grain
means n larger grain movement; higher stocks
promise more railroad building, and that means
more demand for rails. So the iron market
! closed with better tone, escaping, for the time
at least, the decline in prices which the large
increase in output had threatened But gold
began to 90 abroad again.
One can see many reasons why the condition
OF business should be considered more cncOur-
aging, apart from the doings of speculatois.
! The substantial close of the labor controversies
/ is good for industry and trade. Better still is
! the arrest of the unwisc cight-hour movement,
which could not have gone fac without en-
harassing many industries. 1t is a good thing
that June draws near with every prospect of
remarkably large crops. 1t is n good thing in
many points of view that silver, after falling
last week to l3id. pei o., has rallied to 40 1-l6
though it is natural to doubt whether this is the
! beginning of a lasting recovery. According to
! Mr.. OCOnnor, of the Indian Department of
| Finance, silver has begun to lose purchasing
| power In the interior of India, and if this is so,
| the wheat fields along the Ganges may not COM
pete hereafter so ciicctually with the wheat
fields alOng the Mississippi ana the San ,Joa-
Guin. The course of the Bank of France which
t,Xk In So, 100, 900 more gold last week instead
O, Unlocking large part of the stock supposed
to have been taken in temporarily on account
of the loan. eXcitcs some remark 1t is noticed
that no gold went back to England, as was ex-
pccted after the loan subscription had been
closed, and the opinion gains ground which was
expressed week ago that the bank has seized
/ 4 nil Inv la In
itself against more radical change in the
relations of silver and gold.
This gives some importance to the renewed
exports of gold from this country, which were
not large enough in amount to cause any dis
turbancr, but nevertheless indicate that the
current may be decidedly not in our favor for
some time to come. Grain exports have been
improving since prices FELL and yet the value of
domestic exports from New-York for the past
three weeks has been 3 per cent less than for
the same weeks last year. while the value of
imports has been 2Ol2 per cent greater. The
Treasury is taking in little more silver in May
than in earlier months, but so far only 1j4
per cent of its receipts for customs at New
York. The Washir gton reports show that the
Treasury gained last week $1,000 in silver
owned, but it also gained $l.2)O, ,OO0 in gold
owned, " hilc ii lost in legal tenders nothing to
speak Of. The banks held their own IN specie,
and gained in legal tenders, but also still more
IN bank notes of which tho statement gives no
account.
Wall Street attributes the rise in stocks to the
work of Nlr. Armour and his associates of Chi
cago. Mr.. Armour, it is believed. tried to bull
wheat on a large scale, buying heavily at 90 or
thcrcabOuts, but has since found it best to un-
load in the neghborhood of 50 or lower, losing
Il few hundred thousand in the operation. If
he has gone into the stock market to get back
his money, the change is logical but results in
speculation rarely follow logical rules. The
average price of stocks sank to $5G.76 on
Wednesday at the lowest but SO recovered that
1t was $3.50 at the close on Saturday-back |
where it was April II. The complete returns
of traffic between Chicago and the seaboald for
April correct uany eXlggerations based on i'm
perfect reports; it appears that the wcstbounu
tonnage was only per cent less than last year,
and the ea,tbound tonnage 26 per cent less. |
For four months ending with April, the west
bould movement was not pei cent less than !
lasi year. and the castbound only about / per
cent less. In view of the better rates obtained |
this year the comparison is encouraging. But
1t does not follow that the success Of st. Paul |
in borrowing moro money to build more COM
pctlng lines in the Northwest is a reason for
buying the stocks Of that or competing rail
roads.
The grain market closed about as low as it /
was ut any time last week, with Il decline of = |
cents in the nearest wheat options. and 23l IN
corn, while oats recovered s. Good weather
has cost the grain speculatoIs many millions,
and it becomes an interesting question what
they will do when large new crop is added to
the supply on hand. There was not much
change in pork products last week, and cottOn
advanced Il sixteenth III spite OF "A slight decline
in print cloths. The tone of the non market
was improved without change in prices, and the
return OF coal traffic shows a decrease OF
23o 900 tons in the stocks hand during
April the production being only al, BOO tons
below that of last year. But prices are about
cents weaker than week ago Tin advanced
80 cents per 100 pounds, and oil declined 43s,
with refined Is lower. But the most starting
change was in copper, the Calumet and llccla
having sold several millions pounds, it is SAID,
at lOl2 cents. 1t Is not unnatural If, as the
officials say, they L had copper and wanted
money" that the company should choose to
supply the market itself instead of allowing
others to supply as much as they could of 1t.
But the sales threaten revolution in the busi
ness tor which some competing companies do
not seem to have been prepared
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