Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-04-19
BIG PANIC IN WHEAT.
The Bulls for Once Capture the Chi
cagO Grain Market by Storm.
NAY WHEAT SHOOTS UP TO 81 IA
Manipulation the Only Tangible Reason
for the Advance.
An OPINION BY A WELL-KNOWN EXPERT

CHICAGO, April 1S.-It was lively day
on Change great day for the holders ot
wheat 1t was a day in which the specu.
lative giants fought a long and stubbornly
contested battle to q decisive finish. The
result was disastrous to the bears, but highly
profitable to the bulls. Enormous trans
actions which showed tremendous losses
were evened up. One commission firm
bought in a line of 500, 600 bushels May
wheat which was sold short at 16c below the
price at which it was purchased to-day, and
some of it was bought even at 20c above the
price at which 1t had been sold' So far as
known only one of the great traders who are
nearly always to be found on the bear side
of the market, refused to haul down his
colors and surrender.
The first few minutes trading was e1cit-
ing, but merely preliminary to the great
struggle of the day, which continued, with
gradually increasing ferceness, for an hour,
May advancing about cents in that time.
Although millions of bushels were being
offered at the heavy advance in prices which
had Immediately succeeded the first few
trades, shorts did not come out fast enough
to satisfy the urgency of the buyers, who
frequently, in their excitement, bid more
for the stuff than it was being offered at
Nav started with the first sale at 81 09I;
but 81 1851 1OI4 81 1O5I and 81 II were then
bid before auv come out. Before the memor-
andum Of sale could be jotted down the en-
tire crowd was shouting in chorus bids of
81 y, and in a minute more 81 Is was paid.
Reactions OF l cent were instantaneous dur
ing the first half hour, but the tendency was
strongly upward until 1880 A. NJ, after
which tired nature and the call price, which
BY that time had been reached, called halt
to the advance and a respite to the tortured
shorts. The price in the meantime had ad-
vaneed TO 81 IA, and, although some sales
were made even as high as 81 10, there were
manv orders to sell at 81 141f which could
not be executed for lack of buyers.
There was nothing in the news of the da-
to account for such phenomenal strength.
The bears appeared to take fright at the evil
IDENTIFY manipulated appearance of the May
future. BrddStreet'S statement that the Wis.,
ible and invisible reserves on July l would
be down to 100000 or 100000 bushels
if the present ratio of export was kept up
till May, have helped the feeling.
Late cables from Liverpool, while quoting
values frmer, began, nevertheless, to e1-
press opinions that the advance abroad was
overdone. The marked increase in the mar
keting of wheat by English farmers during
the last two weeks was also a straw in the
same direction. The realizing sales by the
large conservative holders here was also
taken as a concession that the pace abroad
had been little too hot to last much longer
without breathing spell in the shape of
reaction. The LIQUID .tiOn included July
as well as Nav, bu: the advance was about
cents less. My remained agitated during
the greater part OF the session, but gradu-
ally weakened.