The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-03-28
BUSINESS SKIES NOT BRIGHT.
TRADE AT MOST PLACES DULL AND
UNSATIsFACTORY.

The south Buying Smaller Quanti-
ties of Groceries and Provisions
rs the Result of Large Food Crops
Raised at HOme-Bank Clearings
Denote n Falling on in General
Business.
New York, March T.-Bradstreet's to-
morrow will say: 1.-THE week has brought
more favorable weather. which tends to
create a better feeling. But trade except
at Baltimore. Minneapolis, st. Paul and
Chicago. and to moderate degree at
other points, remains dun and unsatis-
factory. The most encouraging feature
is noted in the prices of wheat Indian
corn and Bessemer pig iron. the latter
being based on the higher value placed
on lake ores.
THE check in the demand for gro
ceries and provisions at the south is due
10 southern planters having raised larger
food crops this year. Heavy receipts of
vegetables at southern markets are fol-
lowed by reports of large crops thereof in
sight.
zone of the most unpleasant features is
the lack of improvement in mercantile
collections.
THE total bank clearings continue the
recent downward movement and furnish
the smallest total for some weeks, $751;.
O00.OOO or s per cent. less than last week,
and only ] per cent. larger than in the
fourth week of March. 1895.
wool in some instances has been shad-
ed in price. Trade in wool is almost at
a standstill, aside from a few sales made
for export Foreign dress woolens are
h dgs f the 09y N 5he
woolem mills have closed for lack of or
ders.
reports of a prospective large crop.
The heavy movement OF ginghams ap-
pears to be the outcome of the auction
sales, the effect of which on other fabrics
Is depressing.
Large Accommodations of white cotton
are reported. and Providence bankers
state that cotton manufacturers nave
sought loans there to help them carry the
accumulated stocks.
Heavy mercantile failures had a tenn
pOrary effect on trade, and in instances
caused a closer scrutiny of credits and a
check on sales and distribution. Only ZIG
business failures are reported in the Uni
ted States compared with 300 last week,
but an unusually large proportion of them
are of comparatively heavily capitalized
concerns. The total number Of failures
in the week a year ago was 2S2
r.. G. Dun & Co, in their weekly review
of trade, will say: THE returns of fall
ures are somewhat disappointing. Sew
eral of magnitude were mentioned week
ago, and they have swelled the aggregate
of defaulted liabilities for the three weeks
of March to 1855, 6l4, against $l1 ,271, 131
last year. A heavy failure in Texas will
also swell the aggregate of returns for the
past week, which includes 259 in the Uni-
ted States, against pa last year, and
thirty-nine in Canada, against forty-two
mo important change has occurred in
the general condition of business during
the week, and if trade in some respects,
looks worse, in other respects it looks bet
ter. Some failures of magnitude have oc-
CURED, which have caused much appre-
hensiOn and unwillngnesS to lend among
bankers, and there have been somewhat
less favorable features in the dry goods
market, but in iron and steel conditions
are slightly and in boots and shoes
considerably more hopeful Foreign
trade is little more satisfactory, exports
from New York for three weeks showing
an increase over last year of per cent,
while imports have shown nearly. the
same rate of decrease In general, the
course of domestic prices tends to favor
the marketing of staples abroad.
Cotton had a lively rise with the COW
eringi of short sellers, but began to de-
cline again a week ago and has been lag
ging ever since. The receipts from plan
tations continue quite as large as in the
same weeks of the last short crop year.
and the stocks in sight, with the quantities
known to be held by European and Amer
lean mills, make up an ample supply for
the rest of the crop year
In the goods market the latest indi-
cations do not warrent expectations that
the mills will continue full production
throughout the season. The demand for
woollen dress goods is the best feature
of the woolens markets. The sales of wool
have fallen to less than half an ordinary
weeks full consumption, amounting last
week to only 1926, $50 pounds, at the chief
markets. A striking feature this week has
been a sale of $4,000 pounds of American
wool for shipment to England.
THE iron and steel markets have dis
closed a similar feature. for a little Ala
bama pig has been sold for export by the
Sloss Company, though much business of
that sort is possible. The combination of
lake producers has at last announced its
prices for the coming season: "a for first
class Bessemer, and SO for non-Bessemer
ores, and it is calculated that with coke
at 81 per ton, BeSSemer pig iron can be
produced at about SIPS at Pittsburg.
which is now the current price there. But
the slow marketing of finished products is
still the main trouble. There has been a
little more activity this week and the Car
negie works have sold 10000 steel rails to
Japan, thus scoring a noteworthy success,
but in the main the market is about as in
active and unsatisfactory as it has been"