The Portland daily press., 1896-05-02
LITTLE IMPROVEMENT.
Business Not On the Mend Says
BradStreets.
PRESENT PARTAKES OF A BE.
TWEEN SEASONS CHARACTER.

Advance in Prices for Special Grades of
Pig Iron Noted-Cotton Goods Continue
Representatives, Prices for Shoes But
Business Is Good-Statement of Bank
CIearings and Failures.
New York, May 1.-Bradstreet's tomor-
row will sayi There is relatively less i'm
provement in general trade this week,
the present partaking of between sea-
sons character. Wholesale merchants in
staple lines, in many instances, look
ahead with confidence to the autumn. In
such departments as agricultural i'm
plements, buildingamaterials and hard
ware, there is reported moderate revival
in demand.
AT Providence there is slight increase
in trade; manufacturing interests report
no improvement.
The damage by frost to the California
grape and peach crop, amounts to about
80 per cent.
Statesmen travelling from Chicago report
that interior buyers are purchasing
with increased conservatism. There is
no decided improvement in trade. Slight
increases in distribution are reported
in only few lines.
There is an Unexpectedly small num-
Der of strikes at this season. In iron and
steel, there are advances OIL prices for
special grades ofzLig iron, due to the out
put of Lake Superior ores required for
their production, having been practically
taken up by few interests. The Sc
called steel trust is reported to be extend.
ing its territory. Quotations for Southern
pig have been cut as have those for the
few sales Of Bessemer pig and billets
made by middlemen. In addition to the
changes in the prices of iron and steel,
higher quotations are announced for
coffee. cotton, petroleum and anthracite
coal, whila print cloths ana lumber are
practically unchanged. Copper is easier; !;
wool sold at concessions, manufacturers
preferring not to buy large lots at nomi-
nal prices.
Cotton goods are depressed, notwith-
standing the strength of cotton. The N est
encouraging feature of the wooleh market
from the point of view CT tho domestic
mills, is the higher cost of foreign wool
ems, Considerable mems w0uleR wear
machinery remains idle.
Lower prices are noted for wheat. -four,
wheat, corn, oats, pork and lard and
sugar. A reaction in quotations for shoes
| brought prices down to the level of 1S9 4,
at which the factories are fairly busy and
| there is rather more confidence
| The exports of wheat (wheat flour in
oluded as wheat) from both coasts Of the
United States this week, is smaller than
last week, amounting to !, 200, 600 bushels
| against totals OF between two and a half
and three million bushels each on the
corresponding weeks in the three pre-
ceding years.
! The total bank clearings are $3.50, O00,
coo this week, a decrease from last " eek
OF not quite per cent, and o falling off
as compared with the corresponding
week last year Of 10 per cent.
The April bank olearings reflect the
continued quiet in BUSINESS and speculation
| the gain being nine-tenths off per cent
over April, 1896 The total clearings at
40 cities aggregate 81, 290, 769. $50 for April,
an increase over April, 1894 of 15 per
cent, decrease from April, 1893, jnst
before the panic, Of 13 per cent For four
months the olearings aggregate S17 059.
514, $50 this year, an increase oyer last
year of 6.4 per cent; a gain over 1884 OF
1876 per cent; decrease over the large
| totals of 1893 of 20 per cent.
The weekly total of business failures
| throughout the United States, while
averaging fewer than in the weeks dur
| ing the first quarter of the year, still
attract attention. The total mum ber re-
ported is 254 this week, against 206 in the
last week of April, 1898.