The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-02-09
STILL DOWNWARD
Cotton Between Thirteen
and Fourteen Cents.
Opinions Expressed That it May Go,
Lower and Then Make a Move
Back to Higher Figures.


Cotton sought lower level in prices
yesterday morning and the decreasing
tendency is such that this level is apt
to prove an incline of the decline pat
tern.
Whether prices will turn back up this
de cline is something to be only guessed
at fro mpresent conditions, and from
the various things which are now affect
ing the market. You can hear both bear
Talk and bull talk from the cotton mer.
There was no cotton for sale on the
Raleigh market yesterday and hence there
was no practical application of tie price
question. The cotton buyers wLo We're
seen yesterday said that they We're only
willing to pay from 13 IA to Is IL cents
pound for cotton, and this Indicated
d drop of nearly cent rom the prices
of the preceding day. A year ego one
bale was sold here at 8 5-S cents a
pound.
There is evidently but little cotton left
in this section. and the report Is that
men who have that little LETT are mold
ing it against the present break in
prices. They feel that cotton is going to
teke an advance again.
The depressed condition of the spot
market here is not felt in Texas. Yester-
day in telegram from cotton firm in
Waco to one in Raleigh it was stated
that spot cotton had not declined there
in any such ratio as futures and that
what little is left is being held frI.iy
BY strong people, while the spot demand
is good
Mr.. 2. o. Moring, the secret ary- treas
ure of the Caraleigh Cotton Mills, being
asked yesterday as to his opinion Of The
cotton market, and whether he thought
there would be furt her decrease in
Price, said:
81 don't know, and no one knows. What
/ know today about cotton, | don't know
tomorrow. l can't tell what prices ar9
going to do. The market is swinging
ode way and then another so rapidly that
it is even hard to guess, but do net
believe that prices will go very mu Il
lower
Captain j. J. Thomas president of Tie
Commercial and Farmers Bank, who keeps
in close touch with the cotton market,
being asked what he thought Of condi-
lions said:
eff there was a good reason for cotton
from 16 cents to IL cents a pound the
present depression will not continue. That
is to say that if the price was brought
about by supply and demands, even il
1t does not go back as high rs it was
it will egain part of the lost ground. (
don't see anything else it can do.
Eor
without Gotten, and that the English spin
ners have got away with the Southern
spinners, who are chronic bears and who
think that the world is full of cotton,
the price of which is going down. This
time they got caught wen the advance
came
"If there is war between Russia
ana Japan will it affect the price OF cot
toE2'' was the question used yesterday a.
a starting point to get Mr.. Ashley Horre.
OF Clayton, to talk cotton. The qIes1.cD
caught him, and he said:
ut would affect it temporarily, but
not for long, or seriously, unless other
foreign powers should be involved
''Why?"
';I'or the reason that the supply is too
small and too far behind the denaEd.
The mills will need cotton and 1t is GER
tain that the small crop is not going
all round without competition for il"
What does the present decline mean?
1t means that when cotton was sell
ing at from 1914 to Ii cents a pound
1t went into the hands Of spectators, ara
l think they have had it IN charge aud
have taken it out of the regular char
nols of supply and demand. The cause
Of the decline came about from two reg-
sons. The market got top-heayy, the
SPECTATORS wanted their margins, and Il
gcod opportunity came when they could
begin 'hollering war
DO you believe the price viii stay
dcwn?'
Il hardly think SO. l think it Is goirS
10 advance again and Ibolievc it Will go
az least as high as it has been
How high DO you think it will go?"
Well as to the spot market, that VIII
5a governed solely by the necessity 9GG
ability OF the mills. They will need spot
cotton and they will pay for it just as
mach a. possible so as to leave a profit
Their ability TO pay viii indica,e tie
heshth Of the market.
The hack-set given the bull faction, The
talk of war and the rc:uor of war. thu