The Saint Paul globe., 1905-04-24

report from the winter wheat belt was
not OF cheerful nature. the lack of
complaints of the wheat turning yellow.
These complaints being widely scattered
caused considerable buying for long ac-
count by the small speculator
On Wednesday. however reports began
TO circulate that Gates had thrown up
the sponge and turned over his holdings
TO Armour to manage. Longs. who had
been banking on the fact that Gates would
carry out his intention of running a cor
ner in Chicago May. took fright and be-
gan to unload. The bears noticing this
by breaking Chicago May &c. and this
market followed with a break Of about
the same proportion and the trade be-
lieved that the worst was over for the
time being. as Armour was reported as
spportlng the Chicago July option, many
believing that he would hold the market
up until he was able to unload the Gates
wheat.
In this the bulls were disappointed as
after the holiday of Friday the bears had
gained more confidence and started the
over a cent for May and nearly as much
for July. Disguised and tired longs gave
their orders for selling out their stuff, but
the demand was practically nothing the
only demand coming from the shorts who
wanted to secure what profits they had
The little rally the market had from time
TO time was met with renewed selling from
both longs and shorts. Stop loss orders
were numerous, especially below the dol
lar mark. and il was extremely difficult
Ior ihe PIT traders to execute orders at
the limits. In numerous cases a cent to
z cents under the limits was the best that
the commission men could fill these stop
loss orders.
1t is probable that the shorts Will over
do the selling, in which case a sharp
rally Is in order 1t will be best for the
speculator who wants to play the wheat
market TO wait awhile until the market
settles down and becomes more quiet.
The windup Of the May deal will leave
the market In much better condition for
the outside speculator. as there will not
be millions of long wheat hanging over
the market which is liable to be thrown
IN the pit at any moment. From now on
the future of the market will be more leg
itlmate and depend upon the growing
crop in the winter and spring wheat sec
ton. If conditions are favorable a lower
range OF prices will be the result. while
bound to advance. 1t is a weather market
from now until harvest time.
All the leading owners of cleaning and
mixing elevators heard the story that an
arrangement had been made by Gates
with the Armour forces for withdrawn
OF the Armour houses from their present
active work in making contract grade
wheat and that the Armour company
would be given the business of merchan-
dizing all the cash wheat that the CLIQUE
received on Its May deal large guam
elevators for shipment to the Armour
houses at Chicago, something rather un-
likely, If the arrangement had been COM
pleted, as was believed in some quarters
The closing of the Armour batteries.
while important to the bulls would by
no means relieve them OF their difficui-
ties. There are large number of other
cleaning houses of large capacity that
would be glad to secure sufficient wheat
for cleaning and blending to keep them
busy until the end of the Nav deal The
smaller elevators at other points also
would seize the opportunity for captur-
ing large profits il the larger houses were
taken over by the clique.
The high prices offered for cash whea :
form strong inducement to interior hold
ers to clean every spoonful out of their
bins. and also offer a profit on the work
or cleaning wheat up TO grade. And Ii is
not Improbable that considerable uuantI-
ties will be brought here from Canada in
the next six weeks, if the May deal holds
out.
ALI this may complicate the problem OF
prices for next month, but 1t ought to
place the longer futures on a more Sc
cure foundation. For undoubtedly il will
result in bringing out into commercial
sight all the wheat that can be brought
forward and probably will show that this
country is about as near to the point of
actual exhaustion of supplies as is possi-
Die at the close of crop year. Then the
new crop will start in on its own merits
with an interior demand for It sufficient
to absorb the entire supply for a good
many weeks after the beginning of har-
vest operations, even IL we are going to
nave first class crop, which is very far
from being a certainty up to date.