The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-05-20
DOLLAR WHEAT
SEEMS CERTAIN
After an xciting Week the Bulls
in Chicago Wheat Pit
Retained Control.
WORLDS SUPPLY is SHORT
WEATHER BAD FOR THIS YEARS
CROP.

Chicago. May 19-The past week,
with its dollar wheat" has been a
historic one in the annals of the Chi
cago board of trade. While statistics
on the quantity of wheat which
assertions of veteran traders that the
volume of business was of unprecedent-
ed proportions may be safely accepted.
There have been many wild sessions in
the wheat pit before, notably when
corners" were being run, when prices
fiuctuated more violently-when small
cliques made or lost-moStly lost-im-
posing fortunes. but never before has
there been a broader or better sus-
tanned general market.
Never before have grain brokers
done d larger business. For more than
a week when the rest of the city was
asleep the lights in the brokers' Of
fees we're ablaZe while clerks were
working into the small hours trying
to keep track of the business done.
Hardly a house in town has a suffi-
cient force of clerks In the pit to fill
the orders which are pouring in from
Maine to California. Nor are there
enough wires to handle the mass of
daily business. The inevitable, there
fore. has happened and only the larger
orders are considered. In the Ian
guage of the pit, lit is no market for
a Diker."
Weather the Main Factor.
Crop reports. private and public. the
solemn verdicts of experts" statistics,
official and unofficial. crop estimates,
and the enticing literature of the COM
mission houses which are growing rich
on commissions alone, vary nOticeably
in detail, but those are practically una
nimOuS in the statement that the world
cannot grow this year all the wheat it
needs to consume. Minor items, such
as green bug damages and the like.
have been made much of, but the
weather here and abroad is the all-in-
fiuential factor. Spring wheat has
been so late that the whole country
has been absorbed in il and bought
wheat. Even Liverpool importers, who
usually work for cheap wheat in Amer
lea, have bought directly IN this mar
ket, a precautionary measure they were
compelled to take in the face of
probability that their action would bull
prices still further. They bought early
in the week at what would now be
called bargain prices. The majority OF
traders proclaim loudly still higher
prices, but take profits on good adj
vanees. One house alone has come out
with a note discOrdant to the chorus,
declaring that the market is one man
ufactured by big houses who have
made a mountain of damage of a MOLE
hill of unsatisfactory weather and
green bugs. Prices during the week
have been an index of the relative
strength of two forces-buying against
a crop shortage and selling. not in the
belief of a good crop. but TO secure
profits. The week ended with the in
dicator pointing to the success of the
bulls, with May wheat showing a net
gain of 4%c; July, 45sc; September,
Az, and December, 311e.
Dollar Wheat Reality.
Dollar wheat became an actually
last Monday, when September and De-
cember options both passed that mark.
Tuesday and Wednesday profit-taking
sales We're enormous, but prices reced-
ed very stubbornly and kept well
above the level at whieh the market
had begun the week Thursday the
market again advanced excitedly, and
on Friday ali records for the session
were broken, when July went to
81 0215. September to s1.03k, and De-
these three options still over a dollar
Saturday brought forth another deluge
of DrOfit-talling sales, together with a
great deal of purely speculative short sell
ing. but heavy as was this pressure. the
reaction in prices was not serious as
the net advance of the week.
Next week promises to furnish further
speculative excitement, for no material
change in crop conditions has been re-