The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-09-05
THE MORNING NEWS: SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER s. 1896

! was commenced, and the result was as
| mentioned above. The market was over
| loaded with outsiders. and was helpless
/ against the bears. 1t was simply case
! Of market wrecking. The southern spot
/ markets, however, did not decline nearly
| as severely as futures, and consequent
| ly the latter recovered March going back
to cents by the end Of October, when
! Savannah was TIC cents. Then the
| bears resumed their aggressiveness, ana
| by the middle of November, March fu-
lures were below $50 cents, and Savannah
was cents For a month or so after this
| changes were merely of a see-saw char
acter, and Of no great i'm
portance until towards the latter part of
December, when President Cleveland sent
| to congress his sensational message re-
garding Venezuelan affairs, by way of
| Christmas present 20 the New York
| bears. For a few weeks ii was regarded
| both in this country and in Europe, that
war between the United States and Great
| Britain was by no means improbable, over
| a comparatively trivial dispute concern
ing a boundary line on the part of the
British government, and one of our hot
headed South American sister republics.
A semi-panic struck all the markets,
stocks, cotton and everything. Cotton fell
here to 1l-16, and March in New York
to about 7.S5c. The war-like ebulltion died
out by degrees, however, and by the end
OF the year, March had recovered to S.25c,
and the Savannah price to 15-16c.
BY this time it began to be manifest
that the crop was short, and prices were
well sustained throughout January, but
the bears were working another line.
Very large sales of fertilizers gave a SUBJ
stantial foundation for talk of largely in
creased acreage; as matter of fact II was
generally known that preparations for
the new crop were going on at q scale as
large as ever known, if not
Ia rfyl " IN Ian he
bears began to dwell upon the
shadow of the immense crop coming,
claimed that a record breaking crop was
assured, and one of 100000 to 100000
as probable, regardless of the fact that
it is as unsafe to count the chickens of an
unset brood, as to count the bales of an
implanted crop.
BY the middle of February cotton had
declined here to TIC, and March in New
York, to below 7.50c, SO that we had just
returned to the starting point of the sea-
son.
About this time the market began to
take on a dual phase. The certainty of
a short crop and reduced II not practi-
caly exhausted supplies, before a new
crop would be available, created talk of
special deal in the summer months. At
the opening of trading in the new crop
months, August was about 40 points over
October, but by the middle of February
this difference had decreased to about 80
points.
Talk of heavy acreage was universal,
and the market ruled weak through Feb
ruary into March; on March g. August
was below Z. 4Oc, October Z. 10c, and Savan-
nah was 5-16c. This was low point, and
as the advance commenced, the premium
Of August over the new crop months grew
wider BY the end of March, August was
7.75c, October 7.30c, and middling here Z
9-16c. From this time the spot business
eli 4nuN fv,AA
tirely centered in the future markets. To-
wards the latter part of April, the market
became stronger and by May g. August
had improved to S1Sc and October to
7.50c, while our quotation was TIC.
Crop news being very favorable the
new crop months now began to yield un-
der pressure of heavy offerings. BY the
middle of May. October had dropped to
7.23c, while August held up to S06c-so
! that the difference had widened to over so
points, while a corner in August was still
regarded as not impossible, a matter of
fact the scheme, If there had been one,
| seemed to have been abandoned early in
| May, for with the continued weakness in
| the general market the August premium
| also decreased. Prices continued to tend
| dbwnwards under glowing crop reports for
| two months. until the middle of July On
| July Is August was 6.65c, October, 6.19c,
| and Savannah was Csc.
This was the turning point. The change
in crop reports. more fully discussed be-
| low, began; and, with such minor fiuctu-
| ations as are usually to be expected, the
| tendency was strongly upward. New crop
| months had risen about 80 points by Aug.
| /, and nearly 80 points more by Aug. TO-
on that day the bureau report came out
| reporting conditions lower than bearish
! New York expected, and prices, amid con-
| siderable excitement rose fully 50 points
in an hour or two, october reaching 1850
| Fluctuations now became frequent and
| violent, but the tendency continued MAIN
| ly upward. until on Aug. %, when Octo-
| Der reached S45c or 21ac higher than little
| over a month before The August corner
| disappeared under the extraordinarily ear
| ly ripening of the crop by the hot dry
weather. This was one of the years that a
| bull clique cornering August would have
received more than counted on. No doubt
| fully a quarter million bales of the new
| crop, could have been rushed into New
York and New Orleans, during August had
/ there been any inducement.
The hot dry spell was broken about Aug.
| % to a. and with the changed weather
| came also a change in the market. A sharp
decline ensued, and on the morning of Aug.
| 81, October sold as low as 7.42c, decline
| of over 1c in nine days, but during the day
the temper of the market again underwent
a change, and a gain of % points was re-
corded by the close. The late decline was
not entirely due to any supposed improve
ment in crop prospects, but in measure
to other causes, such as the rapid increase
| in receipts of new cotton especially in
Texas, poor spot demand, and fears of
money stringency. But on August 81, there
was change for the better is respect to
these matters, so that the eventful year
ended with a strong market.
on Saturday, Aug 81 1896 at the close
of the cotton year, the following were the
official spot quotations of the Cotton Ex-
change:
Good mlddling ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.
Mddhng '........''....bts
| Low middling Observation-Disclosures. .6Ss
The New Crop.