Bisbee daily review., 1907-05-29
PRICE OF COPPER.

PRICE OF COPPER.
 One of the prominent eastern brok- CTS writes thus of the price of copper:
 ''The one vital influence in our cop per share market continues to be the price of copper. the metal. It is unde- niable that to great many minds there is considerable doubt as to how long the present price can be main talned. Prices of the substantial div idend paying stocks furnish conclu- sive evidence that this doubt exists very generally. At no time have share prices gotten to any level at all com mensurate with a 25-cent price for the metal. And it is, nevertheless, almost certain that declining market for the metal would be followed by some shrinkage in the prices of shares. It is, therefore, of vital importance to discover. If possible. any pronounced trend in the market for the metal.
 Evidence as to the metal market conditions leads us. on the whole, to think that prices are not quite as strong as the asking prices of the prin- eipal selling agencies would indicate. And yet there is no open weakness. There is no large increase in produc- ton and it probably is a fact that since the first of January the produc- ton in this country has not been quite equal to that of the similar period in the year 1906. As to the demand, about all that one can say is that there is none at the present moment. As to the consumption, the indica- tions are that it must be at least as large as it was a year ago. The big manufacturers of electrical apparatus are currently reported to be doing some 30 or 40 per cent more business than a year ago; this statement ap- plies, we presume, to the sales of such companies, rather than to their deliveries, but in respect to both of these features of thst ousipes- we have no doubt that the increase is very large There is no doubt that the foreign consumption of American Copper is very much less than it was year ago. At least, if the consum- ton is not less, certainly the supplies are being obtained elsewhere than in this country, for our net exports of copper have diminished very material ly. There is noticeable in many branches of business a general ten dency to curtail moderately. This general tendency must communicate itself to some of the branches of trade where copper is consumed.
 Tn a general way, commodity prices as whole are certainly very strong. We notice that some of the European statisticians figure that the average commodity price on the first of May established a new high record. While high prices for wheat. corn and sundfy other commodities have no immediate relation to the price for copper, still, on the other hand, it might reasonably be expected that a high market for pig iron would go hand in hand with high market for copper. It looks as though there was something approach ing a famine in the pig iron market for the moment.
 50 that there are many features of rather confusing import to be con sidered in estimating the future of the copper market, and one hardly feels safe in attempting to reach definite opinion at the moment.
 AS the above is written the figures of the foreign visible supply of cop per arrive, showing decrease of 1855 tons within the past two weeks and bringing the visible supply now to 1,60S tons. The lowest visible sup ply was reached on March l. 1906, at which time, it amounted to S950 tons. Following that low point the amount gradually increased until on January 1 of this year the amount stood at 16,s25 tons. The decrease since January has been 5321 tons or nearly 12,oe0. 900 pounds, this is cer- tain1y a somewhat bullish develop meut."