Omaha daily bee., 1896-05-09
PRICES SHOW SOME ADVANCE
Consumption, However, Does Not Yet
Equal the Volume of Production,
PROOF OF SOUND FINANCIAL CONDITIONS
Gold Exports Have Produced No Mon
ctnry Disturbnnce-Enect of New
Combination ON Trade -
wheat IA Little Higher.

NEW YORK, May S.-R. G. Dun & co.'s
weekly review of trade tomorrow will say:
That exports of S5,S50,00) gold this week have
produced no monetary disturbance, is at
once proof of the sounduess of financial
conditions, and of the prevailing confidence
in better things to come. Much of the
hesitation at present is due to temporarily
reduced demand in American industries and
in iron and steel the power of the new
combinations is being generally tested by
refusal of orders, so that production exceeds
consumption, but consumption exceeds new
buying. The general irregularlty of prices
for slackness of demand for finished prod
ucts do not prevent the marking up of
prices by combinations, but are largely due
to doubt whether such prices as are fixed
can be maintained. Pig iron Is weaker at
the east and also at Pittsburg and most
of the finished products are weaker with
remarkably narrow demand. Minor metals
are inactive, with copper weak, tin steady
and lead slightly lower and American tin
plates 30 below foreign.
For textile manufactures the situation Is try
though not equal to their normal output, and
for many months have been accommodating goods,
stopping, although the demand for some grades,
with higher prices for cotton, has helped to "A
small advance in prices. Print cloths are &c
higher. but some other grades have declined, go
lower. Wooden manufacturers fnd prices Of wool
sagging both here and abroad. the decline at
London having reached about . per cent, while
the average Of quotations by Coates Brothers,
Philadelphia, was nearly l per cent lower May
l, and prices have been further reduced by con-
cessions to clear off stocks. At thu west traders
are buying much above the parity OF seaboard
prices, and many growers are refusing to sell,
believing that the upward squirt of last year
will be repeated. Sales for the week have been
less than half n weeks full consumption, and
for five weeks, Il, li6, 700 pounds. against 29. GO9,-
G) last year. Mems woolens show no improve
ment, but there is more of an active businegs
in fianneis, and the demand for fancy dress
goods is encouraging, though for plain goods
it is but moderate.
Traders in wheat have lifted prices a little, and
yet nobody questions the correctness Of western
reports indicating more than an ordinary yield
of winter wheat, and unusual progress in the
planting of spring. with the narrow stock usual
at this season, n speculation for advance always
has many opportunities, but western receipts are
still 20 per cent larger than last year, while At
lantic exports, flour included, are for the week
9i3, co. bu.. against LOIS. 900 bu. a year ago.
After the fall to 6Slac. the price rose about &c.
Corn is also n shade lower, but without definite
reason. Cotton speculation has lifted the spot
price to S.31. and profits have been realized from
the men who sold cotton. They did not own,
but it Is still the fact, that the outlook for next
falls crop IL unusually favorable. while stocks
hero and abroad. exceed all possible demands
until September l.
Failures for the week have been 2SS in the
UGited States, against 227 last year. and twenty
four in Canada, against thirty-four last year.