The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-07-02
cothran,s Market Letter.

Cotton-Liverpoo was only conspicuous
 this morning for the better sale of spots l executed, however, at quite a material reduction. The supplies of spinners must I be quite small, and it is but natural that | opportunities for replenIsning VIII be eag- | erly accepted on such reeessions. Their option department did not meet require ments at the hour of our opening, but | improved sufficiently before the closet | to adjust parties. Cable expressions were hopeful in tenor, reactions being expected | on account of better spot business. | A few belated and timid shorts fur nished enough support at our opening to prevent prices moving slightly in their own favor, and throughout the day it was evident that in the absence of new feat ures interest of both persuasions were adjusted to cover the holidays and de- pend on Tuesdays bureau for verification of opinions. It would be well to bear in mind that the June conditions which we are on the eve of receiving, do not def1n- itely fix the size of the crop There have | been some notable instances of failure in this respect Most prominent of these may be mentioned the condition of 92 5 in 1896, the highest In the last ten years, re- sulting in yield of only .344 fraction of a bale per acre. likewise the lowest yield for the same period of time. The suc- ceeding year with a report of 6.5 lower,
 
 remains the highest on record for ten years. On the other hand, the condition ! or I'll last year, the second lowest for i ten years, results according to present es- inmates of the old crop in the correspond ingly second lowest yield per acre in ten | years. These results 1t may be safely | said, have not been caused by inaccura- cies, but are due entirely to the critical periods, subsequent to this date. Hence | with high figure at the present time. | bearing in mind the considerable increase | In acreage, it remains with the investor | to closely observe a continuance of the reverse of present crop conditions as & basis for operating opinions.
 Wheat.-Offerings were very light early | and admitted of prices working up, the July kind especially with September fol- | lowing and while crop adyices were con- | fiicting there was enough in the news | from the southwest to indicate some dam age but with traders inclined to even up over holiday and on alleged estimates of 225 cars new wheat at St. Louis and Kan sas City Tuesday prices declined sharply l but ended fairly strong with good buy , ing of September and in the event of fur ! ther declines would decidedly favor pur- | chases of the latter
 Corn.-Shorts covered early in July in | large charters yesterday 100000 while | shippers were in the market today with
 
 buyer of May.
 There was good buying of December but liquidation was renewed In July with changing to September with the closing firm. We feel friendly to corn and favor its purchase on soft spots.
 Oats-Were stimulated early over the fact Of no deliveries but car lots were in excess of estimates, 177 cars expected Tuesday that made the cash market heavy, samples in some instances declin- ing cents per bushel. We think it ad- visable to cover shorts in July and favor purchases of September and December on the declines.
 Provisions. s.--Hogs were cents higher while deliveries were smaller than ex- peoted and investment buying was mo- ticeabe with offerings not at all free. It looks very much as if next weeks run of hogs would be small and as a consequence local sentiment is more bulsh and we would favor purchases of ribs.
 Stocks-The stock market today was dominated by the traction activity with Metropolitan, on which We have been bull fish from 107 up, leading and we are frank to confess at this time that under the pending arrangements we do not know how high 1t will go. It depends consider ably upon the extent of the short interest which has been severely punished.
 It reminds us of the Third avenue deal when that stock was rushed up from be- low 50 punishing the bears fearfully. We hope our friends took advantage of this Metropolitan movement and we be- lieve it will be a good thing to take on some Brooklyn Rapid Transit now for that stock should be in a position to ad- vance by itself.
 The outlook for the stock market next week is full of uncertainty but we do not anticipate either big advance nor se- rious decline. There should be irregular movements until the democrats finish their work and the crop reports is digest ed After that should the investment de- mand continue and things look satisfac- tory there is only one way for stocks to go and that is up. Sales, 173,500