The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-01-11
A DULL PERIOD IN BUSINESS.
CONFIDENCE N THE FUTURE
BASED on THE BOND ISSUE.

4 Total Of f3I Failures During the
Past Week-DOubt a. TO the First
Effects Of the Bond sale on the
Money Market Causing Some Hest
tation-specuIatfOn in Products
Rather DuII-SOme sIacIsening in
the Foreign Demand for Cotton.
New York. Jan. I0.-R. G.. Dun & Co.
will say tomorrow. in their weekly re-
view OF trade. The liabilities in fail
ures for the first ten days Of January
amounted 10 S918.795. OF which 500 i17 were
Of manufacturing and S678.5ss of trading
concerns. The failures for the week
nave been 49, in the United States. against
40 last year. and 50 in Canada, against
81 last year.
THE new year begins with such uncer-
tainty that business is somewhat retari-
ed. The proposed sale of bonds offers
ground for confidence in the future, but
no one is able TO determine what its
earliest effects may be I'm the money mar
ket, and for the time it is a cause of
hesitation rather than hOpefulness.
Speculation in products has not been
active. Cotton is unchanged, although
the receipts for the week have not been
very large. but some slackening appears
in the foreign demand. Wheat is about
1c higher and corn the same, without dis
tinct reason in either case.
The industrial situation has not ma
terially changed. There is much hesita-
ton in the iron business, with some adj
vance in Bessemer pig, because of the ex-
pectatiOn that COnnellsville coke and lake
ore viii both be dearer, and yet finished
products of iron and steel are on the
whole quoted a little lower, and the nail
association is It'll in session to determine
whether 1t will abandon the effort to main
tain a fixed price That branch of business
is extremely slow. Nothing is doing in
rails, and while there is a rather bet
ter demand for sheets and plates, and
several good orders are reported for struc-
tural works angles are quoted a shade
lower. Everything turns on the contracts
Tor ore, which are still unsettled, but
the great excess in production of pig
iron over the present demand is no longer
denied, and II Is expected that quite
number of the furnaces will presently dis
continue production. Lower prices for
Alabama iron renew competition with
eastern furnaces.
The cotton mills are generally running
though not all with full force, and some
are piling up goods without regard to the
immediate demand, which is compare
lively slack, as they apparently believe
that the short supply of cotton this year
Will ensure them profits in the end as il
has during the past half year Neverthe-
less goods have decidedly weakened in
price, quite a number of changes having
been recorded during the past week.
THE volume of domestic trade indicated
by payments through the principal clear
ing houses shows the usual large increase
of 14.6 per cent. over last year. but in COM
parisOn with the same week, in 1898, shows
a decrease OF l3l per cent Part OF TINS
difference must be attributed to the shrink
age in prices. but there is also, without
doubt, a considerable decrease in the dis
tribution of goods to final consumers.
Badstreets will say tomorrow: Gen
eral trade has not improved appreciably.
Mild weather at western points has inter-
fered with business in some instances and
the week continues 10 present character
istics of a betWeen-seasons period. The
impression is general that uncertainty as
to financial action by congress and dis
turbing political conditions have an I'M
favorable influence on the prospect for
new enterprises. Mercantile collections,
east, west and northwest, are complained
of, but at the south the comparative ease
with which they are made, forms a con-
spicuous exception. The demand for
funds at various western centers is the
most active for year.
Speculation is narrow and professional
but the stock market is strong on the be-
lief that the $lO0,0O0OO0 bond issue will be
successful and that no severe depletion
of the treasury gold reserve is likely dur
ing the thirty days of delay for popular
subscriptions.
December gross railway earnings are
among the best of 1895, as far as increases
are concerned. The total earnings of 109
roads for December were 4l,TSl 09, an
increase of IS per cent. over 1894.
THE course of prices of staples con-
tinues the improvement of last week
with an upward movement in live
stock, pork and other meats, lard, -four
wheat, corn oats, Bessemer pig and bar
iron. In addition to these firm prices are
named for COAL tobacco, print cloths, steel
billets, sugar lumber, leather, and hides
decreases being noted for coffee, cotton
and petroleum, in addition to the cut of
81 for southern pig and 25c in eastern iron.
THE bank clearings are 81, 235 900 600
this week, an increase of about % per
cent over the week before and IS per
ago.
There are 446 business failures in the
United States this week, an exception
ally heavy total Last week the aggre-
gate was 403, and in the week one year
ago Ii was 405.
THE general industrial situation is
moderately improved. In no department
are there more favorable conditions than
a week ago, while the idleness of some
steel mills and the certainty that nroduc-