St. Paul daily globe., 1891-04-18
WHEAT GOES up QUICK
Unlimited Opportunities for
Reaping Big Profits on
Both Sides.
Tariff News From Paris Sende
the Price Of Wheat
Skywapd.
The Corn Market Experiences
Very Sudden and Violent
Fluctuations.
Hammering by the Bears in
Stocks Gains No Con-
eeSSiOns.

CHICAGO, April 17.-To-day was one to be
remembered by all who operated in the wheat
pit. To those who hit it correctly it was
good Friday, indeed. for there were unlim-
tied opportunities for making money ON both
sides Of the market, while to those who
guessed it wrong, it was a decided BLACK
Friday which exhausted ordinarily safe
margins in twinkling. The net result of
the days trading is an advance of 314c in the
price of the May option, and of 2sSc in July,
as compared with the closing prices yester-
day, the extreme high notch of the day and
of the season being 1sc better than those fig
ures. The boom was started near the close of
the session Yesterday afternoon, when the
Associated Press Paris cable quoting
the Steele of that city, as saying that
the French government would probably have
to remove the import duty of 26c on wheat
before next August. and that similar action
would probably be taken by Germany
This was telegraphed here from New
York in a private dispatch just as
the session was closing, distorted, so as to
say that this action was about to be taken. 1t
caused a stampede of shorts, an advance to
S1075s for May at the close. On the curb,
after hours, the latter went to S10DA. When
trading opened this morning Sl.0J was the
price. The cables showed that the foreign
markets had responded to our advance. An
enormous trade resulted. The situation was
who had bought heavily yesterday were
in position to take their prof
its. A battle royal resulted between
these realizing sellers on the one side and the
shorts and bull crowd who were not long on
the other. The victory temporarily was with
the sellers. A vast quantity of long wheat
was Immediately disposed of. B. P. Hutch
inson, George Smith, William Dunn, and
many of the customers of ). V, White d Co.,
W. G. Mccormick d Co., Kennett Hopkins
local scalpers sold right and left, and the
price steadily worked down to S1.0S1s This
was followed by swell to Sl.0sS4, drop to
S1.0S1S followed by an excited advance to
S1.09S4, which brought another deluge of long
wheat. under which the price again settled to
S1.0S34. which latter point it had reached
at II O'Clock. July from S1.07s40
S1.0S at the start declined to SI067s; ad
to S1067s sold up to SI.07S4 at the same time
that May was at SI.09s4, and once again
worked back to Sl067s. In the meantime
there were reports of impending financial
troubles in Paris: the denial of yesterdays
report that the French government would
repeal the duties on wheat. and the fine
weather as the bearish influences. The bulls
were fortified with a Minneapolis message
saying Plllsbury hao advanced prices of pat
ent flour 40c per barrel, and with copy of
the London Standards article of April 6, in
which it rehashed its former sensational
talk of the damage to European crops
and the great deficiency in the worlds
yield for 1891 The latter, while
but slightly different from the story published
by the same sheet several weeks ago. was
sufficient to fire the ardor of every bull trader
on the floor, and was the cause OF one of the
strongest bulges. Between l. ID and o'clock
the official closing cables were received. AS
these reflected early rise here, they had a
sensational effect This effect was further
heightened saying that wheat had advanced
10c there since yesterday. This lifted
May TO Sill, and July TO Sl.107s,
and trading was within lac of those figures
when the gong tapped for the close. The
feature of the corn market was its
nervous strength early. and the
evident desire OF the holders
to accept their profits and bulge. The Liver
pool market being quoted eXcitedly higher
and the fewer i'll the wheat deal were the
stimulating factors early in the session. May
at the opening sold at d3S4c, or lc higher
than it closed yesterday. 1t declined later to
72l2c with a rumored sale or two at 73c ad-
vanced to 73c. sold off again to 723s. then up
with rush to 744c, off again 10 729sc at the
close. The execution of orders was as diff
cult as on the previous day. owing 10 the
suddenness and violence of the fluctuations.
Cash corn was still worth a premium over
May, but this was not so great as on the day
before. The oats market was very excited at
apd ahe openng geng Hsy se started inside at '6'f Of
a minute. The price advanced to 57s4c, the
highest figure that has been made on the
crop and then weakened to 56l2c The mar
ket recovered to 57lsc at the close, indicating
a gain of 34c as compared with yesterday.
The provision pit built up a wall between
itself and its excited neighbors in the cereal
crowd. The packers were evidently OF the
opinion that il was a good time to get rid of
some of the immense stocks which they were
carrying and sold freely, with the result of
downward tendency in prices. Though the
opening prices were higher than the close
yesterday, last prices show a decline of 2l2c
@l5c in pork Nav lard lost 2Y2c, while Jnly
gained 2l2c. Ribs show an advance of 56G7l2c.
The leading futures ranged as follows: