Omaha daily bee., 1888-03-23
THE SPECULATIVE MARKETS.
The Cold Snap Fails to Advance
"a, Wheat as Of Old. q
A STRONG OPENING IN CORN.
a Fair Showing Of Strength Wit
messed in Proyisions-Tradin
in Cattle Fairly Active
Quotations.
CHICAGO PRODUCE MARKET.

CHICAGO, March 22.-TSpccial Telegram
to the BEE An the old members of tho
board said to-day: "Such a cold snap as this
in the latter part Of March used to be worth
a couple of cents advance in whcat.n Those
days, however, are over, and when the old
members were asked why the freezing
weather was less influential now, the only
answer was that there was no outside trade
Still, this was not exactly true, for there was
considerable buying by various commission
houses on orders from the winter wheat belt.
II was promptly met by offerings from big
local bears. 1t did look, but for an instant
at the opening, as If the weather would have
It's old-tme effect, for May wheat opened asc
above last nights closing price and even ad-
vanced another &c Immediately, but that ap-
peared to be Its last desperate effort for the
day and was the highest price touched. The
opening bulge was caused by the haste of
some of the smaller local shorts to cover, and
when these demands were satisfied and
the big bears saw to it that il
was done without permitting the price
to advance much, the market sagged and be-
came inactive at l4@isc lower and only
showed life and advanced little just at tho
close, apparently in sympathy with sharp
advance in the corn market. May wheat
opened at 77S$sc and directly sold up to T79ic,
then slowly declined to 77a1c fiuctuated be-
tween that price and ~ &C for some time and
within the last ten minutes of the session ad-
vanced TO 755c, closing there at o'clock
June wheat opened at 7Sc, sold up to 7SJso,
down to 11$4c and closed mt ocloscd at iS63
7Skc.
The early course Of the corn market was
almost precisely the same as in wheat, ex-
cent that fluctuations were wider The
strength in wheat evidently frightened the
corn shorts and in their eagerness to cover
the opening was made &c higher than last
nights close. But that &c was very soon
lost and after a little reaction lower price
even was touched. Better grading of the re-
ceipts made. the local crowd bearish, and
Cudahy who sold large amount
yesterday, followed the same course to-day.
Lighter receipts promised for tomorrow
changed the disposition of local traders
somewhat and when well known and strong
houses began buying freely the shorts began
another scramble and put the price up a full
cent from the lowest point of the session
May corn opened at 1870, worked down to
1870, advanced to 495Sc, fell to 49l5c, then
advanced to 5O1sc, closing at l o'clock at
5U@JOSc June corn opened at 1890, fell to
49]sc and advanced to 499iC549Jsc, which
was the price at the O'Clock close.
There was fair speculative trade in oats
ana the course of prices was the same as in
corn-strong early, followed by decline,
and sharp advance at the close. May oats
opened at 3Os5c, sold down to 80 &c and up to
30l9c, which was the price at the / o'clock
adjournment. June oats sold at 3O1tc and
closed nominally at 3Oi6c. July oats opened
at 29$4c, sold up to and closed at 2915c.
August oats opened at 269lc sold up to 27c
and closed at 26JSc.
In provisions a fair showing of strength
was witnessed. Pork was again hammered
early in the session by a few of the old raid
ers and forced down some 20c, but it sub
sequently recovered almost all the ground
lost, while in short ribs and lard there was
no important change. In the last named
articles the fluctuations were also confined
to narrow range. Based on last nights
cloeings short ribs at o'clock showed an ad-
vance of 211c, lard was unchanged to 21Sc
higher and pork unchanged
AFTERNooN SEssIoN.-Wheat for May
u5sc, June IS sc. July 7S4c. Corn firm
May closing at 50Bc, June SOC, July 5000
504c. Oats firmer. Pork declined SC and
closed at sl3.7719 for March. Sl3S715 for
May, and Sl3.9215 for June. Lard quiet:
March closed at $50, May s7.52l9, June
quiet, closing at SI1211 for March, S72O for
May, S7.27]9 for June and S735 for July.