St. Paul daily globe., 1891-05-05
A Bit of Snow Prompts the
Bulls to Send Wheat
Up,
But the Bears Make a Raid
and Bring 1t Down
Again.
Corn and Oats Follow Closely
in the Wake Of
Wheat.
Outside Of St. Paul There Was
No Activity in Stock
Dealings.

CHICAGO, May 4.-The flakes of snow were
visible to the naked eye at about 8 o'clock
this morning, and there were reports of frost
and snow in the wheat belts of the North
west; so that the bulls in wheat proceeded to
put the price up on the curb, consequently
when regular trading opened, the price of
the July option was S1.04l3G11.05 against
S1.0438 at the close Saturday. That was the
highest figure of the day; the bears at once
began a most vigorous and determined raid
OH prices, and therefore, except for one or
two brief periods, the bulls were not ''in it,
The early cables came in weak aad lower,
the receipts were heavy. and the bears were
selling right and left, there was flood of
selling orders both for domestic and foreign
account and the longs becoming demoral-
lied, threw their holdings over. The result
was inevitable. Prices went off rapidly.
There was no check to the downward move
ment till the put price-S1. .03-was reached.
Buying against these options caused a slight
rally, but the downward movement was
quickly resumed again. Many stop loss or
ders were reached when the price had de-
clined to about 81 03, and that with the con-
tinued hammering, which was still admins
tered by the heavy short sellers prevented
any but the very slightest of reactions until
the price had gotten down to Sl.02. There
was recovery from the last named figures to
SI.02s4 as the result of the posting of the vsi-
BILE supply statement, showing q heavy de-
crease in the amount of wheat in sight but
this was followed by renewed selling and
steady recession in price till S1.0OSS was
reached, and the close was easy and only lac
better than the lowest, showing a loss of
4I2c from the top price of the day, and
37sc as compared with Saturdays close.
Linn. S. Y. White and Baldwin and
Farnum started the selling, and Cudahy,
Ream and Partridge helping IL along.
These three big operators are SAID TO be short
many millions of bushels and they were
therefore strongly interested in hammerlng
the market. Minneapolis was reported to
have sold considerable wheat here and there
was much selling both here and at New York
on cable orders John Bryant sold very
large line and Kennett-Hopkins, Boyden.
Millmine- Bodman and EgglestOn were large
buyers. An error in addition caused the
posting OF the receipts of corn as 474 cars, @
subsequent correction making the number
GA. This error, together with the cold
weather in the Northwest, made the opening
price of July corn 625s9j?S4c, against 625sc
at the close Saturday; but the weakness i'll
wheat quickly made itself felt in the corn
pit and the bear traders there began the
execution of similar tactics. They were
helped by the correction in the receipt
figures. The July option touched 627sO
63e, and then began TO decline under the
pounding of Cudahy and other heavy bears
The downward movement was continued
with immaterial reactions throughout the
session, closing at 607S@5lc, the inside figure
being the lowest of The day, aud &c below the
highest. Oats were fairly active and weak,
following wheat and corn closely. The in
crease in the visible supply assisted the de-
cline. The provision market was rather
heavy AT the opening, and positively weak
later n. b. Ream was conspicuous and
heavy seller. He is supposed TO have put
oIt about 10000 bbls of pork. Armour was
credited with buying some, but as rule the
packers were on the bear side. A good deal
of buying was done by commission houses.
The closing prices were near the lowest of
the day. and at recession OF 27l2c on July
pork, Ice on July lard and ribs.
The leading futures ranged as follows.