The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-03-19
MARKETS FOR FUTURES
THE SULLY FAILURE CAUSES A PANIC.
Prices Drop 25o to 26o Points, But Before the Closing Covering Has Effect of Steady
 ing the Market.

New York, March 1S.-The cotton mar ket opened weak at an advance or points on. April, but generally unchanged to F points lower on further bear pressure and liquidation in spite of better caol than expected and smaller estimates for the days receipts. Tne continued pressure against the market in the face oI rather more bulllsh developments suggested A determined effort to undermine the con centrated bull interest believed to exist in May contracts and the idea became more general that a powerful bear interest was m the market. Commission houses who had been advising purchases on the de- eune became more cautious and while during the forenoon there were frequent sharp rallies prIces g adualy went uown and down. Towards : clock when mar gin prices are made up, May was selling around l4.S This represented a decline since the high point of only a few days ago of about lSO points or nearly {92o a bale. This evidently was more than the bull interest could finance and lust be- Tore o'clock the suspension Of D. J. Suliy and Company was announced I'm meolately the market was plunged into the widest scene of decentralization Brokers were panic stri; ken and cotton came pouring out with ana without or ders. The market went down as though there was no bottom. No one seemed to care about buying, every one wanted to sell. The big bears, whoever they have been, whose selling is believed to have started little over a week ago may nave bought some cotton, but they were careful not to buy too actively and be- lore the decline was checked even May nnd sold at 12:65 and July at F SO This was a loss as compared with last nights closing prices of from 25O to 26O points or about $l2.5O bale. The decline from the nigh point reached on the ose of Ia st week was about cents a pound or n hnuf SzO pale. Just before the close covering helped prices somewhat and the markeI was finally steady at a ne. decline of 64Il96 points, with May closing at 3.3 and July at l355.
 Sales were estimated at l50lO00 hales of during the entire session ReceiIts were light and the news generallv w.,s rather more favorable to prices than of late put the only considerations were shose concerned with the speculative sjt uatlon. In spite of the recent severe de- clines and reports concerning the Iarga line held by the Sully interests if may be said that the suspension came as move or less Of a surprise to the general trade. The Sully holdings are varlolsly esti- mated. Local traders recently have do tected the existence of large interest Tn May which has been estimated at around sOO,OOO bales and the bear drive rcsulting In today's developments Is thought h1 some to have represented the ehorts Gr shorts to force the loosenine of the bnlI grip on the May option which if continued must have resulted seriously to shorts
 Receipts at the ports today were S235 bales, against 7.l23 last week and Ia25J ast year. For the week 6i,00O against n,2Sa last week and S7,724 last year. To 1ays receipts at New Orleans were 2S4O against 2.l56 last year and at Houston l'2S2 against 4,la last year.