Omaha daily bee., 1896-12-20
COMMERCIAL AND FINANCIAL
Wheat Manages to Score an Advance of a
Fraction.
CORN AND OATS HEAVY AT A DECLINE
Stcndincss Displayed by Foreign Mar
kets and Crop Damage in Ar
Ecntinc the Features
of the Market.

CHICAGO, Dec. 19.-wheat today man
aged to recover a. of yesterdays decline
on dun market. The steddiness displayed
by foreign markets and another batch of
Argentine crop damage reports, were the
principal factors in the advance. Corn and
oats were heavy and declined lsc and Ac
respectively. Provisions made small ad-
vanccs.
In wheat the bearish feeling which has
been so prominent the past week was less
in evidence at the opening. Liverpool quo
tations were unchanged, and that in itself
was influential in creating a better feeling,
coming as they did after Il &c decline here
yesterday Liverpool also sent reports on
the wheat crop in various provinces of Ar
gentina, showing serious condition of af-
fairs in some instances Opening quotations
for May were from SOtsc to S0Ac, compared
with yesterdays closing price of 19iac. The
price took dip to 79Ac soon after the open
ing ON the throwing over of "a lot of long
wheat, but the market had too much sta
tistical support TO break badly from such
a cause ana as soon as the pressure was re-
moved prices went up again. The receipts
at both the northwest points and In Chi
luth reported $40 cars ana chicago 10 cars,
n total of il2 cars, compared with COS on the
same day last week and SI2 on the corre-
spending day of the year before. The ofli-
cial figures on the New South Wales wheat
crop showed shortage of l,25O,00O bu. over
requirements. The seaboard reported
good inquiry for export, one dispatch from
New York said 1t was known there that a
good steady business was being done in
Chicago wheat, all rail shipments via Bos
ton. Millers took $1,000 bu. here. The visi-
BILE supply Is not expected to show over
2500O0 bu. decrease on Monday, and some
lcok for a small increase The pronounced
weakness of oats made Its influence felt
shortly before the close. Realizing was also
INDUCED in to u moderate eNent, and May,
which in the meantime had Crept up to SOlaC,
broke to I95sc. That was the price at the
close.
Corn was very quiet with trading chiefly
among sCalpers. Prices during the morning
were helped to a moderate extent by the
strength of wheat and free exports, but
weakened later, principally, perhaps, in sym
pathy with oats, and closed at a slight de-
cline. May opened shade higher at 25asc,
sold at 253sc to 25lac, then eased off to from
25sc to .25Lc, whore II closed.
oats started rather firm in common with
the other grain markets. but later fell off
decidedly. Liberal receipts and Il heavy es-
the raidng crowd to work with, ana they
pressed their advantage. Trading was never
heavy and fluctuations were narrow. May
opened a shade higher at from 2Oc to pose,
declined to 1850 and closed weak at 19a4C.
The feeling in the provision pit was not
or so, but became firm toward the end and
closed quite firm at slight advances all
around. There was not any more than the
recent moderate volume of business done
but packers were not inclined to sell as
freely as of late May pork closed &c higher
to S5.02la; May ribs about unchanged at
$i02lR
Estimated receipts Monday: Wheat, As
cars; corn, 800 cars; oats, 4O5 cars; hogs,
f0 0GO head.
The leading futures ranged as follows;