The age-herald., 1902-01-18
IRON AND STEEL
 LEAD ALL MARKETS
Bradstreqt's and Dun's Weekly
 Review of Trade
PIG IRON SALES ARJ HEAVY
Predictions of Advances In Foundry and Charcoal Grades Are Con- firmed By Price Changes During
 the Week-CercaIs Active.

New York. January 17.-Bradstroet' to- morrow will say;
 The usual January thaw'' in prices ar rived this week and securities, food pro ducts, particularly the cereals, pork and dairy products coffee and sugar among the groceries and copper among the met als. have all weakened and closed lower on the week The cause for this move ment have been in many cases technical and the general trade situation has not on the whole been weakened If any thing. in fact, improvement may be ex- pected to follow. a striking example of this being in the cereals. High prices had killed off export trade but this seems to have revived this week on the decline I In distributive trade the situation has | certainly improved. A larger spring busi 1 ness has been done in cotton and wool en goods. Advices from the west are of an enlarged spring jobbing husint ss and collections remain satisfactory. Northwest advices are particularly good: agricultural implements and dry goods being ordered and shipped in large vol umes. Trade in the Southwest continues satisfactory but the lack of needed moist ure for the winter wheat crop is a dis turbing element, tending to dull the edge of trade.
 More is doing in leading Eeastern tex tile markets. prints and ginghams nov ing well with jobbers while a good busi- ness is also reported in wooden goods though the new prices made ae rather lower than expected There is even some improvement noted in Southern trade; largely the esult of firmer tones of raw cotton.
 Iron and Steel First.
 Among the industries iron and steel are still easily first in the volume of new bus mess and in production although the car shortage is shown to have materially re- duced the December output of pig iron Sales of the latter this week have been very heavy fully 16O0O tons having been taken, most of 1t at Pittsburg and the bulk of it for the delivery in the latter part of the year. Prompt delivery com mand premium and the same is true of some billets. Conservatism in the mat ter of advancing pig iron prices is still noted. Southern producers announce that they will discourage any advance beyond s12 for No. at Birmingham. Conserva- tive plans may. however, be disarranged if the scarcity becomes more acute.
 Predictions of advances in foundry and charcoal grades are confirmed by price changes this week. Finished products tend higher. Copper has been "cut to the bone this week and 11c is the nominal price, but claims are made of sales as low as 10lac without any particular inn provement in demand reported. although exports are large. The boot and shoe n- dustry looks forward confidently to an active spring business. Although the question is not settled. 1t is generally ex- pected that prices will go higher. Cereals Active and Excited.
 The cereals have been active and ex- cited; liquidation by disappointed longs was a feature early, and prices crumbled, aided by the suspension of a prominent western operator and bear rumors of fur ther troubles. Unsatisfactory wheat crop