The Cape Girardeau Democrat., 1894-12-29
DuN's COMMERCIAL REVIEW.


Financial Liquidation Prospects Would
ne More Hopeful-EScess of Merchan-
disc Exports Over Imports for Novem.
ber and December-No improvement In
the Prices of Agricultural Products.
New YORK, Dec. 22.-R. G. Dun &
Co.'S weekly review of trade issued to-
iaY saws:
But for the large exports of gold
and unceI tainty about financial legis-
Iation. the indications would be more
encouraging. Some increase is seen in
orders given to manufacturing works,
though until the year ends the force
actually at work naturally diminishes-
The holiday trade has been rather
poor at most points, partly owing to
the mild weather. There is distinctly
ture demand for Industrial products.
though prices are not better.
Domestic exports increase little,
though exportable staples are not bet
ter in price. In November the excess
of merchandise exports over imports
was $40, ,573.s .s91, besides S2,931,0S1 sill
yer, and December returns indicate as
large an excess. For this very reason
the exports of s5, ,332, OIL in gold since
last Friday and the Withdrawals of
about three times as much gold from
the treasury are the more noticed.
Money continues to accumulate here,
and there is no enlargement in the le-
gitimate demand for commercial loans,
though some offerings of paper, ap-
parently to prepare for yearly settle
ments, have excited remark.
Prices of agricultural products do
not improve. Wheat is unchanged for
.he week, although western receipts
have fallen to 2 3O4, ,925 bushels, against
1854 ,O6l for the same week last year.
and it does not count for much that
the Atlantic exports were 9S6, GAS,
against 744, SAT last year. The visible
supply still grows and is now ss,l73,-
600 bushels.
Corn fell cents for the week,
though western receipts were only
l.522, ,636 bushels, against S,5s2, ,2O4 last
| year, and Atlantic exports more than
third smaller. Government esti-
mates do not seem to affect actual
transactions.
Cotton has declined a sixteenth to
500 cents, and receipts from planta-
tions continue larger for December
than in 1891, when the crop was over
$4,000, 900 values The theory that pro-
| ducers will not market at current
prices does not yet fit the facts.
Large orders for manufactured prod
ucts have appeared and yet, except in
boots and shoes, the general tendency
| of prices is downward. Steel billets
sell at SIS at Pittsburgh, and Bessemer
pig at $3.50 at Valley mills, and
in other products the tone is,
on the whole, weaker, except that
structural beams hold the recent small
advance; yet quite large transactions
are reported in pig iron and billets and
improved demand for bar and nails,
while nothing Is doing in rails, and
business in sheets and plates is light.
Competition between the works in
operation for the business, which is
not enough to keep them employed,
pushes prices in many lines below the
ordinary cost of production.
Lead has sold largely at 81 cents,
and tin has been depressed half cent
by speculation.
In shoes, manufacturers are obtain
ing good many orders at 21S and 5
cents advance over last years prices.
where still larger differences in cost of
materials are claimed, but many jobbers
hold off, as want of entire agreem ent
among producers raises doubt whether
the advance will be maintained.
Orders for spring woolens have been
more numerous, though relatively
small for the time of year, and the
| opening of heavyweight wool first for
| the next season discloses some reduc-
tions in cheaper goods, with occasional
advance in goods of the better grades
| The confidence of manufacturers seems
to increase, but purchasers of material
are cautious, and for the week were
3,39s, 500 poun nds of wool. against 2,5O7,-
600 last year and 5,597, 400 in 1892. The
increase for this month over last year
is only in foreign wool.
The stock market has been stagnant
rather than weak, sales being very
lighA and mainly in the speculative in
| dustrials. which are so cents per share
lower for the week, while railroads
are 50 cents per share lower. Uncer-
tainty about the monetary future has
affected trade somewhat, but realiz-
ing by foreign holders has also been
important.
The Withdrawals of gold from the
treasury have been over S21, 100000
since December and are attributed in
part to replacement of bank receipts
which were reduced by the purchase of
bonds. Yet it is plain that the desire
of foreigners to get gold instead Of
stocks, and of Americans to get gold
instead of notes. rapidly takes from
the treasury whatever was gained by
selling bonds.
Failures have been somewhat more
important, the reported liabilities for
the second week of December amount
ing to 81, ia ,6o7, and for two weeks of
December the aggregate has been &c.
$50, 401, of which manufacturing liabil-
tiles were 81, ,466, ia, and the trading
liabilities S4,071, SEQ. But last year the
liabilities in failures of the same two
weeks were Sl1, ,679, ,996, of which no lees
than 81, 174 494 were of manufacturing