Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-03-24

NEW YORK, March 23.-R. G. Dun & Co.,
in their weekly trade review, says: After
the blizzard a temporary increase of
business at the east was necessary to make
up for lost time and to meet delayed or
ders. The increased activity from this
cause has extended through the past week,
and it is not yet clear whether a definite
improvement in general trade has not
come with it. In the speculative markets
there has certainly been more activity,
though generally at the expense of values.
Stocks, breadstuffs, provisions, cotton.
sugar and oil are all little lower, but
with larger transactions. Stocks have de-
clined about so cents per share with
an important fall in some of the
more important: wheat is l cent and oats
IL cents lower lard and cotton an eighth
lower, sugar a sixteenth and oil cents,
while coffee and tin have each gained q
cent. 1t is thought that the future turns
largely on the money market which has
been very easy. But the steady loss of re-
serves by the banks, if continued at this
season, may at any time bring sudden
change.
Up to March l, in spite of sales of stocks
on foreign account, there is evidence that
foreign capital continues to come hither,
probably on account of bonds negotiated
laSU year OF early III Jauudfy.
The reports from the interior are gener
ally quite favorable considering the inter
ruption which the storms must have caused.
Comparative inactivity is the rule, though
here and at Boston there is some pressure
since the storm to make up delayed orders
and at Chicago and Omaha increasing
trade is noted.
Collections are noticeably slow at Cleve-
land and not entirely satisfactory at Kan
sas City, but generally fair. Detroit and
Cleveland are the only points where close
ness in the money market is reported,
though Boston begins to draw from New
York, and some applications for discount
come from st. Louis, where rates are 6 to
8 per cent.
OF the larger branch of trade the boot
and shoe appears most cheerful, buyers
reporting a good trade throughout the
country. The dry goods business has been
more active for the past week,
with steady demand and unchanged
prices for cottons, but woolens are in less
satisfactory shape. The demand for dress
goods is moderate, buyers pausing for the
large Arlington sale, and the frequency of
auctions, of which no less than six oc-
CURED today, is a feature not entirely en-
couraging. The iron trade is helped by the
decrease in imports. Yet the constant
offers of southern and western products,
at prices at little below eastern quotations,
continue to depress prices.
The absorption of money by the
treasury continues to deplete bank re-
serves, and the prospect of an early
action by congress does not increase. The
disturbance of business by western rail
road strikes has nearly ceased and there
are new reports that quarrels about rates
are to be adjusted, but the interference of
the interstate commerce law with export
rates through the various eastern ports is
likely to cause difficulty.
The business failures during the last
seven days number, for the United States,
2l2; for Canada, 81; total 243; compared
with DDS last week and for the correspond
ing week of last year, 259.