Bisbee daily review., 1912-12-15
COPPER MARKET FAIRLY ACTIVE
As End of Years Approaches
 blsposition Is 10 Defer
 Purchases for Distant Futa E Requirements
COPPER SHARE MARKET


 Mf. Walker. in his weekly letter ln
 the Bostcn Commercial. shows little diseouragement on account Of the metal market He says: Copper Is
 iairly active. but the tone Of the mar ket s trifle easier. Lake is IT 3-4
 cents and electrolytic is HT5 5.S to l1 3-4 cents pound Considerable
 amounts of copper have been sold in the past two weeks both Tor Decem-
 ber and January delivery. but at pres ent there is no disposition the part
 Of consumers 10 purchase for distant
 future requirements This is not due
 SO much to fear of lower metal prices as to ;he fact that this is the end of
 the year, d time when there is nat
 ral ,ndispositiOn to make new com mitments. and because money Is both high and hard to borrow.
 The foleisn visible supply of cop
 Der. including stocks at Hamburg and Rotterdam, decreased 6,3SJ4. .4OO pounds during November. Against this. however, there was apparently
 shrinkage Of approximately l5.00G .000 pounds in the exports from this coun- try
 
 the brass and wire mills are running | 10 full capacity, there IS no eyidenoe whatever of curtailment of consump- tion. Therefore European mannfac iurers must have been drawing quite heavily on their private stocks of the metal IL is declared that they are practically bare Of supplies now and
 that they must soon enter this market and buy large amounts of copper. The recent high money rates in ali European fnanc9I centers have pre- vented the normal amount of buying ! by manufacturers there and both pri. vate' and public stocks have gTF2tly decreased Within a Very short time lf IS reasonable to expect that d con siderable portion of the surplus in thiS | country, which is by no means large will be purchased by Europeans and
 exported If the largest producing in. | tercsts had been disposed to rig the market they could have shipped abroad a lot of the copper that Is now
 being added 10 American stocks and piled it up in foreign warehouses. There Is no doubt that the metal situation is thoroughly healthy. Pro ductiou is large; consumption is still larger. and il would seem that the 1 latter is still growing more rapidly ] than the former. Since last May do
 mestic consumption has aveTagsd T2,. 1hl, III pounds monthly which has been from 10.OO10OO to 12.0G0, ,OOO bounds greater than at any previous l time in the history Of the trade. not excepting 1906 and l9O7 Foreign con sumption is also exceeding all pre- y.ous records. So far as can be seen there :s no occasion whatever to ex pect any decline in the price of cop per.
 The Copper Share Market. The present nigh money rates are | cooperating with factors that pre- yiOusly existed to discourage Icuau and depress copper share prices. ! Traders are ai talking about the rros- i pect that the Copper Producers state. ment. to be published next Monday. will show a further increase in the American surplus What Of il, if it
 does? Everybody being prepared in advance for the worst. 1t is unlikely ] to influence the prices of stocks one way or another. There win be nothing ' in the Producers statement that will he bear point on copper shares. A feature Of the market recently has ! been the heaviness Of the low priced ! speculative stocks. when indications
 1f improvement begin to appear after | a long period of depression, the cheap | coppers are almost always among the ! first to develop activity and strength. ! Later the trading usually shifts to the higher priced dividend payers and producers; but after speculation once | gets fa.rly started stocks represent ing good mining prospects always be
 come favorires and advance bouy antly.
 l must confess inability to explain
 why such stocks as Mass. Boston x ! COrbin, Utah Apex, Davis Daly, Ne
 yada Douglas, santa Fe. Arizona Com mercial Superior S Boston. Advent
 ure, North and South Lake, Michigan. ! Bohemia. New Baltic, New Arcad.an, Winona and numerous other sman
 producers and meritous prospects are
 selling at prices which they should be expected 10 command in a panic with copper down to i2 cents a pound. Their present quotations .repTesent little more than bare land values ! Such companies as Greene Cananea. | shannon, East Butte. Utah COnsoli- dated and Nevada Consolidated are earning from 15 To 20 per cent or more on the market prices of tie.r istocks and four Of the five are pay ing dividends. but apparently they do not interest spectators at ali { When the public awaSes to the possf hilities of the properties these stocks represent there is likely To be a scram ble similar to that recently witnessed I .n Granby
 A year or two ago l was urging the purchase of Calumet & Arizona
 around $42. of Granby around $20 to
 S30. or Chino. Utah Copper. Anaoon- da. Amalgamated and numeTous other
 good coppers at about half their pres
 ent prices. There is every reason to
 anticipate that many other cOppers
 now neglected at low prices win ad
 vance just as those named already