Daily Arizona silver belt., 1907-08-16
LITTLE BUSINESS
 IN METAL MARKET
Leading Producers Making No Further Concessions in Price and but Few Sales Are Made at Quoted Prices-Ar
 Large Producers Want Over 20 Cents.
George L. Walker says in his last cop

PVi icltci III lhe boStoH toHliHefclal:
 Copper continues dull, but the lare producers are holding prices firm, no withstanding the declining quotations c standard warrants in London and tn combined efforts of certain speculativ interests to bring about demoralizatio in the trade. There is very little bus ness being done at the moment at an price and it is safe to say that the leaC ing producers will make no further r, ductions in prices until the large COT sumers come into the market. Price will then be adjusted on basis tha will be satisfactory to both consumer and producers.
 The producers are believed to hay less than months prpoduetion of col per on hand. The monthly productio of refined copper in the United State, plus imports, in round numbers amount to about l,000,000 pounds. One pro ducer states emphatically that there not now more than 50,000,000 pounds O copper immediately available in tn hands of the producers and consumer combined. On the other hand, the cor sumers have not bought any copper { speak of since early in March, perio of nearly five months having sine elapsed. Some of the largest eonsum CTS admit that their stocks of coppc are almost entirely exhausted, and tha they will have to enter the market yer soon.
 At present the Lake producers ar holding their copper at % cents; Phelp Dodge < Co. and the United Metal Selling company are maintaining thei price of 2lA to 22 cents per pound fo Eleetrolytie copper. Small lots of cor per are reported to have been sold a low as 20 cents, but confirmation O these sales seems to be lacking.
 One of the largest manufacturers O copper wire and cable says: "We ar just recovering our breath after tn greatest period of activity that we hay ever experienced in the trade, an, which practically carried us off our feet There is a falling off in new business but the outlook for the future is yer, good, and we are now doing what would call normal amount of business This letup has allowed us to run a littl longer on our supplies of copper thai we had expected, but our stocks of tn metal are now nearly exhausted; how ever, we would like to see more settle conditions in the market before buyin new copper.
 "'The stringeney of money has, t our actual knowledge, delayed tempo rarily large consumption of copper i new electrical enterprises, and we fin that some of our customers, who are i actual need of large amounts of wir and cables, are withholding orders, bC lieving that there will be an immediat decline in the price of copper, and the are resorting to makeshifts of patche cables and wires meanwhile. There i undoubtedly a large volume of neV business awaiting more settled cond tiOns in the metal market"
 The Copper Share Market
 Copper stocks have slumped badl during the week, due in part to tn general market conditions, but more t the continued uncertainty in the meta market. With Amalgamated at a neN low price for the year, it is not strang that the Boston copeprs have displaye extreme weakness. Conditions are sue that the public is discouraged from buy ing coppers, even at the prevailing loy prices. If the coppers had advance with the price of copper, the presen decline would have created less disturb ance. Persons who bought the copper months ago in anticipation of goo advance with the higher prices for tn metal have held on as long as possible but now that the stocks have droppe, below their former prices, many O these holders have sold out in disgust
 The copper stocks have not discount ed the advance in copper, but they al pear about to over discount the deelin in copper. There is no question tha the dividend-paying coppers are sellini extremely low at present, even thoug the price of the metal should breaI considerably below the present quota tions.
 Most of these stocks are selling lowe
 ll ,, copper was lower, and when they wer paying much smaller dividends. Ther is no reason to expect that the dividend will be reduced to their former levels and in a number of issues there is n reason to expect any dividend reduc tion at all.
 As soon as the metal situation is ad justed, at whatever price, the cope stocks will recover, and I believe tha they will show as much energy on tn advance as on the decline