The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-12
HEAVY RECEIPTS
 WEAKEN COTTON
Price Changes for the Week
 Are on Down Grade
CROP GUESSERS ALL AT SEA
Majority of the Trade Believes i Very Large Crop and This Gives Opportunity to Hammer
 Down Prices.

New York, December 11.-Prices for cot ton have been forced downward principal k by the enoi nous receipts. The extraor- dinary movement into sight, week by week, is where the shoe pinches More over the markets at the south are re- ported as either sluggish or actually weak, and tGere is a pressure here of southern hedge selling. Then, Liverpool straddle sales here are very persistent and at times large. They consist of sales mostly of October against purchases across the water of September October. Such stradd'es may not have worked very well for the season thus far, but Eng Dsh operai prs stick to 1t that they will ultimately prove remunerative.
 Moreover. there seems to be some fall ing off in the sales of cotton goods In this country; Lancashire complains of dull ness of trade, British exports of the goods are somewhat disappointing, and Belgian reports show short time among some of it's mills. The local stock is gradually in creasing. Tho increase this month Is about 13,00O bales and rumors are afioat tEat before very long this increase will amount to something like 50,000 bales. De ccmber notices during the week are said tc have reached a rather large volume, or at any rate considerably larger than was generally supposed. The government crop estimate of 12,92O,o00 bales is by many considered too low. Rumors that it was rrade so owing to outside pressure are denied at Washington, but such rumors. however unfounded, have had some effect here.
 Apart from this it Is pointed out that the quantity e,nned up to December l, if reduced to bales of 500 pounds each. is in half dozen states so large as to sug- gest that before the end of the present calendar yea- the crop estimates for these states will be equalled if not exceeded.
 The fact that the governments Decem- Der estimate in three years out of the past four has been roughly from 500,0O0 to 1,500Ovv bales too low encourages not a few to believe that the estimate of De- cember WAS also too low. Yet 1t is fact that last year the December estimate was 350,000 tco high.
 After all though, prices have shown quite good deal of resistance to press ure. Dece.nber still retains good pre- nium over January. The stock here is increasing, but is all good cotton. Big spinners' takings and very large exports are important features of the situation.
 Many believe that a crop of 13,50O, 600 bales will be absorbed this season, es- pecially as the quality and staple admit tedly much surpass those of any recent crop. Parts of the south are beginning to report exhaustion of supplies. 1t is be- lieved by iaany that the crop has been marketed with unwonted celerity owing to very favorable weather which gives false Impressions as to its size. Prices are % lower thal. a year ago and Sc under it's high point Mddling uplands cotton here is quoted at q15c, but even in the season Of 1906-07, when the crop was 13,511 900 bales, it is pointed out that the average price of middling at New York during the year was 11.45c. Finally, Wall street bulls continue to buy on scale-down on the idea that cotton is cheap, and that every bale will be wanted. Operators there think that the actual consumption will be enor- nous, and that spinners will buy very large quantity of this seasons superior cotton in excess of their actual needs. For the moment however, the big receipts seem burdersome.
 Today's cotton market showed continued weakness and January suffered particu- larly severe break with the close steady at net decline of 3 to Il points. Sales were estimated at 325,000.
 The market opened easy at a decline of to points, although the cables were just about as due, and during the first half hour sold at net loss of to g points under liquidation and bear press ure. During the afternoon the market was very nervous, with January relatively weak and selling off to S.42c or IS points net lower, S3 points below the high rec ord of last month.
 Receipts at the ports today, S9,192 bales against 74,e26 last week and 7,2S2 last year. For the week, 410,000 bales against 4Fc, ,291 last week and S6S,793 last year To- days receipts at New Orleans, Il ,970 bales against S096 last year, and at Houston 16, 164, against 7349 last year.