The news & observer., 1904-02-02
NOT AT THETOPYE1
Cotton Leaping Towards
Seventeen Cents.
RaIeiqh Market Paid Sixteen and a
Half But New York is Quoting
Seventeen and Quarter
Gents.
Cents.

Another day and another advance III
the cotton market Time now seems the
cnly necessary thing for an advance.
There was really no test yesterday on
that might have been reached here, no
cotton being brought for sale. There
were sixty-eght bales Of cotton brought
in TO cover sales last week and some
cotton sold for future delivery the price
paid for this being Is IL cents pound.
In New York the spot market was a
hummer, the figures there beng Il Ia
cents a pound. This mea ms sharp ad-
vance on the local market, unless there
is an unexpected fall in values, and that
does not seem possible at present.
Twenty-cant cotton IS declared to be in
sight by many buyers. The big holders
OF futures are sticking ard so are the
men who have cotton TO sell. The men
who want it simply have to pay tho
price, or get out of the way 1or the
fellow who is "scrouging' in 10 take his
place.
New York and New Orleans are JUS.
running it wild in the future market
uhero July cotton is selling at IS cents
AN'A
behind it. The big figures don't seem to
frighten anybody and the men who ere
holding on keep pushing the pric- up.
Cotton will. stop at some figure, Ct
course. FOR there is limit somewhere,
lut Just where this will be no cuc can
tell, for no one knows just where the
breaking point is situated. The farmers
with cotton to sell are reaping a harvest,
as well as the men who have bought
in the earlier part of the season. No man
who has cotton to sell cares how high 1t
will CO. The. fellow who has 20 bay
does.
The outlook fer today is an advancing
SPOT market, with figures in the neighbor-
hood OF seventeen cents OF the local mar-
ket. It's not bad time TO sell cotton,
even if it does go higher in the future
The weekly cotton letter of ]. H. Par,
ker 6 Co., is as follows:
'''The dry figures of the market reports
of the past week tell a story without a
rival in fiction. The rise in price OF SIT
per bale. during that brief period is little
short of miraculous, and the new price
levels reached had not been deemed pos
sible by the present generation, least OF
all when, six short years ago, the same
cotton. was selling below cents The
highest points touched on the present adj
vance are as follows:
January. March. May. July. August
1857. 1924 1910 1916 1885.
THAT such great advance should have
been possible without any great failures
in business is even more remarkable. Be-
hind the upward movement IN futures has
heen the advances, by leaps and bounds
in spot cotton. In truth, the short inter
est in the real article seems to have been
as great as in the speculative markets
The more we see of the situation. the
more it is evident that exporters, conf
dent of crop of 11,250,G00 or over, sold
all they could to spinners, most OF 1t
when prices were below 10 cents. 1t is
true that these exporters hedged their
sales of spots by purchases of futures. q
most commendable and safe busines oper-
alton under normal conditions. Unfortu-
nately for them, however the conditions
this season have been highly abnormal
The crop has turned out many hundred
thousand bales less than calculated upon,
and it develops that exporters have sold
what they cannot find to deliver. Each
of course. is trying to get the cotton
needed, and the constant competition
keeps prices for spots forging steadily
upward How long this demand will
continue, it is impossible to say, but, at
the moment, there is no immediate relief
from the pressure in sight. To make
matters worse, the present active specula
tion makes necessary the diversion Of a
great volume cf cotton. for the protection
OF short contracts, probably as much as
100000 bales in the three principal mar
kets. For the time being, this cotton is
cut of circulation. as it were; in Other
words, it is not for sale, and, being of
the market, is the same as if 1T did no
exist, as far as satisfying the immediate
wants of spinners and exporters is con
cerned. Here is where the hardest rul
comes H. Meanwhile, port receipts ar
falling off and the interior is dropping
down TO insignificant proportions.
During the first week in February
the Ginpers' Report will be published
probably on the 5th, although no dat,
has yet been set There is well-ground
cd belief that the quantity of cotton
which will be shown have been ginne'
UP to January 18th will indicate a tota
crop not far from 91a million bales, an'