Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-02-06
THE BEST WEEK YET
In Trade This Year Is Reported by
Both Bradstreet and Dun.
ONLY THE SOUTH HOLDING BACK.
The Best January for Bank Clearings on
Record, by ALI odds.
IRON IN AN UNSATISFACTORY STATE
ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DISPATCH. ,

Nearly every dispatch records some i'm
provement.
The least gain is shown, perhaps, from
Galveston, where the volume of goods
moving is about equal to the total one year
ago. At Savannah and Baltimore, where
business has been quiet there is a better
feeling, and receipts of naval stores at the
former are heavy. New Orleans reports
that some of the depression due to low
prices for cotton has been overcome. The
new. rice combination controls prices of
both clean and rough. Cincinnati reports
that business does not equal expectations,
and is only fair in drygoods, boots and
shoes and clothing
There were 279 failures in the United
States this week, compared with 249 last
week. About S5 per cent were employing
capital not to exceed 81, 200 each, and about
9 per cent of them IS, 900 to $4,000 each.
The Spring Delivery Demand Growing.
Almost all other leading trade centers re-
port increased demand and a growing vol
ume of orders for staples for spring deliv-
cry. Mild weather has had unfavorable in
fiuence locally at the Northwest, but job
bers generally now regard the outlook more
hopefully. Next to better request for
| staples named, the greatest demand is for
groceries and provisions.
Live cattle and hogs at Omaha are 10c
higher, but unchanged in the Southwest.
Petroleum is dull and featureless, and
leather and hides are no frmer. Lumber is
In light request, and paints and drugs are
very quiet. There is some new demand for
hardware and cutlery, and tobacco is in bet
ter demand. The enforced advance of %
per cent for anthracite coal has not resulted
in renewed purchases
Pig iron is as sluggish as heretofore, and
stocks are said to show signs of increasing.
Prices on ''private terms" were last week
made openly SOC under the nominal market.
The break in the iron and steel beam COM
bination has let prices down about one
third for those shapes. Since January the
position of iron has been growing less salts
factory.
The Heaviest January in Bank C1earings.
The total of bank clearings at 4S cities for
January S5,511, ,357 133, is IA per cent more
than in January one year ago, &c per cent
more than two years ago, and 16 per cent
more than in January, 1889. 1t is, in fact,
the heaviest January aggregate recorded,
though largely due to an increased volume
on Wall street and breadstuffs trading. In
the region west of Pennsylvania, north of
the Ohio river valley to Kansas, and north
to the Dominion, Is important cities show
substantial increases in January clearings
totals this year over last. There were like
decreases at as many cities south of the
Ohio river, west of the Atlantic coast States,
to and including Texas, while cities like st.
Louis, st. Joseph, Topeka and Waco barely
held their own. This contrast is between
the two regions where trade of late has been
most active and least satisfactory.
The speculative share market has been
irregular, and experiences more or less re-
pressing influence from the unsettled finan-
cial conditions in Europe and the attendant
selling of securities by foreign holders.
Fear of Coming Gold Exports.
The advance of exchange, which has risen
this week 1c on the pound, in the face of
our large exports, attracts unfavorable
comment, though anticipations of gold
shipment are considered premature. These
factors have added to the professional char
acter of speculation and depressed tenden-
cies of stock values in Distillers Zone of the
leading Industrials) also affecting the mar
ket At the same time the plethora of
money and the extremely easy loaning rates
sustains investment buying, and dividend
paying stocks have shown frmness, some of
the leading coal shares, with Western
Union, showing advances.
Silver this week touched the lowest COM
mercial quotations on record-41 Old in
London and 9O1zc in New York, though at
the decline buying for Indian account
created a steadier feeling. followed by q
slight improvement.
Eastern jobbers in drygoods report the
general market stronger, with the large
volume of shipments to the West feature.
Staple cotton goods are stronger and ex-
ports larger while demand for prints and
ginghams is active, with stocks light in first
hands. Print cloth stocks are about one
third of the total a year ago
Wooden and Carpet Goods.
The demand for wooden goods is only fair.
There is free inquiry for carpets at low
prices. Raw cotton continues weak on
large receipts, losing slice. Manufacturers
have taken raw wool more freely at conces-
sions from dealers who have been carrying
large stocks in consignment.
Stocks of available wheat in the United
States and Canada, Europe and afioat, from
all sources tor Europe, decreased only about
100000 bushels in January from an aggre-
gate of more than 156, 100000 bushels on
January 1 last, as compared with more than
G, ZOO, GOO bushels decrease in January, 1891;
over 9, 900, 900 bushels decrease in January,
1890, and more than II, 900, 900 bushels de-
crease ii January, 1889. The January de-
crease in wheat stocks in the United States
and Canada (nearlv 5000, 600 bushels) was
offset in part, over 4,000,0 900 bushels, by an
increase of wheat stocks in Europe and
afoat therefor. Exports of wheat and -four
as wheat from the United States, both
coasts, this week, aggregate LAO, 600 bush
els, an increase as contrasted with the pre-
ceding week. Prices for wheat have
strengthened with more active foreign in
terest, gaining ~ cents on the week.
X. G. Dun Shows Where Strength Lies.
R. G. Dun & Co.'S weekly review of trade
will tomorrow say:
In spite OF much dullness and complaint
in some important bran nches, trade is gradu-
ually enlarging. The East does not get the
full benefit, because Western business is
largely met by Western distributing CEN
ters, and that alone is increasing heavily,
while Southern trade, which is more largely
met by distribution from the East, is unusu-
ally dull: but the West is steadily increas-
ing orders for manufactured products and
is likely to buy more largely in the next five
months than ever before. Eastern con-
sumption is also fairly up to the maximum,
as labor is we'll employed.
The stringency at the South, owing to the
over production of cotton and hurttul spec
ulation in the past, is at present the only
force retarding the general improvements.
Exports OF merchandise continue to greatly
exceed last years TOR live months at
New York by about 81 per cent, while in the
value of imports the increase is very slight.
Reports or business from the cities are
shat de more favorable. At Boston the dry
goods jobbing trade is quite good, with more
orders for wooen goods. At Hartford,
goods are reported. At Philadelphia more
orders are seen for manufactured iron and