The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-04-25
THE CONDITION OF TRADE
THERE rs A MORE H0PEFUL FEEL
ING IN THE TRADE CENTERS.

More Favorable Reports Are Received
From Commercial Travelers-In the In
is in shoes Demand for Iron and Steel
Remains at a StandstiH.
Y New York, April -Bradstreets
says: The feeling is more hopeful at
many trade centers owing to continued
Improvement of demand in retail lines
better weather. generally favorable
prospects and the activity which nat
urally follows renewed building opera
tons, distribution of implements and
farm supplies, and attendant activity.
More favorable reports come from
/ commercial travellers representing
Pittsburg, st. Louis, Kansas City, Oma-
ha and Milwaukee houses. Moderate
\ Improvement is shown at a few other
I western centers, but at most of the lar
ger distributing points throughout The
\ country the movement of merchandise
on the whole shows no material
4 change.
ID While seeding. is progressing rapidly
\ in the northwest, country trade is I'M
"A favorable. Lack of rain in Florida is
n the cause of scarcity of early vegeta-
81 bles, and at almost all cities mercan-
IA tile collections continue slow, remain
" ing relatively the most unfavorable
A feature of business even where the
tendency in other directions is toward
IN Improvement.
In industrial lines the only marked
N change for the better is the manufac-
III ture of shoes, orders for which have
III been placed in excess of preceding
N weeks Wholesalers at more import
n ant centers report larger sales, except
HI at Chicago Transactions in wool have
III increased moderately, but supplies con-
tinue heavy and prices, while nominal
ly unchanged are weak. In Rhode
Island fair orders have been placed.
The movement of dry goods continues
unsatisfactory, but is improved in re-
tail lines, due to the continued favora-
N BILE weather. Prices for cottons are de-
a pressed by over production, not even
the higher quotations for raw material
II having an influence. Demand for iron
and steel remains at standstill, con-
N sumers having stocked up prior to the
recent advance.
n At the south a number of furnaces
II have contracted their output several
II months ago, and fractionally advanced
81 the price of pig.
a On the Pacific coast the situation
4 presents few new features. Tacoma
/ reports that the export lumber trade
4 continues active and Seattle that ship
to Alaska have fallen off. The
L, no Chi inc n
lumbia river interests continues to ex-
ercise an influence at Portland. At
San Francisco a vessel is loading with
wheat for Australia, and advices from
the San Joaquin valley are that fruit
has been damaged by frost and to
less extent in the Santa Clara.
Exports of wheat (aour included as
wheat) from both coasts of the United
States this week are the smallest since
1.-THE third. week in July, 1895, and, with
that exception, the smallest IN any
aweek during the past six years, amount
ing to only 1236000 bushels, compared
with 2431, 600 bushels in the week one
year ago.
The tendency of prices is the reverse
1of that for several preceding weeks
with large number of decreases. In
addition to those mentioned wheat
flour, wheat, Indian corn, oats, sugar,
leather and petroleum are lower, while
wool, lumber, coal, pork and printed
cloths remain nominally unchanged
Cotton and tin-plates have advanced
the latter due to combination of max
ers.
Improvement in business in recent
weeks is reflected in the total of bank
clearings, $1,012,000,0O0, an increase of
2.S per cent, compared with last week
and of II per cent, compared with the
third week of April, 1895. When con-
trast is made with the corresponding
week in 1894, this weeks total is is per
cent larger, but it is per cent. small
er than in the corresponding week of
1893
There are 240 business failures re-
ported throughout the United States
this week, compared with 223 in the
corresponding week one year ago.