The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-02-14
WHEAT HITS
HIGH SPOTS
IN CHICAGO
Big Rise on Liverpool
Market Boosts May
6 IL Cents.

Chicago, Feb, 14-Wheat prices
jumped as much as 6l5 cents a
bushel today at the opening of the
board of trade. The reason was a
sensational advance in Liverpool
and other foreign market centers
while United States exchanges were
closed during yesterdays holiday.
May delivery, the most active trad
ing option here, opened at 1.37 10
1.391a, as against 1.33 to 1885 at
the finish on Saturday.
Dealings in Chicago took on
large proportions as soon as the
market opened, the prevailing view
being that the extraordinary rise in
values abroad was largely due TO
more general realization of the fact
| that the world is confronted by
small supplies of wheat, and that
hope for relief by early shipments
of new winter wheat from the Unit
ed Safes might prove fallacious
owing to the poor crop outlook.
Spectators Caught.
Spectators who had sold wheat
on the assumption that a normal
yield of winter wheat in this coun-
try was to be expected, found
themselves this morning in a de-
cidedly uncomfortable position, and
it was their efforts to extricate
themselves without further losses
that had much to do with forcing
prices here sharply upward. When
demand from this source had been
partly satisfied, the market react
! ed somewhat, holders of wheat TAX
ing advantage of the circumstances
to sell out at a huge profit.
A good deal of the selling on
the initial advance in the wheat
market here was said to come from
interests that had bought at Win
nipeg yesterday while the advance
there was in it's early stages.
Up S14 in Liverpool.
Great as was the soaring of
wheat prices today, the rise was
surpassed at Liverpool, where at
| 3 p. m. the market was up SA
| pence as compared with Saturdays
close there. In connection with
this fact, gossip was in circulation
here that immense export buying
was going on at the seaboard in
this country. although shipments of
wheat from the United States at
present would arrive in Europe in
I direct competition with more sea-
sonable arrivals of wheat from
Australia and Argentina. On the
ather hand, some houses here had
advfces that Argentine farmers
we're holding back supplies and
that crop damage reports from the
Pampas region were being receiv-
ed.
The posting of the Liverpool
D. m. statement showing the British
market was leading Chicago failed
| to stir a new advance here. Wheth-
er because of this fact or other
wise, the closing prices at Liver
pool showed a substantial setback
from the top figures, and the mar
ket here tended to become steadier
| in contrast. with the wildness of
| fluctuations which had character
| lied the beginning of the day.
Lack Selling Incentive.
Incentive for spectators to sell
wheat appeared difficult to find in
/ the face of messages such as came
! from one authority in Kansas say
/ ing farmers in that state were lit
orally sweeping their bins for wheat
and that 80 days from now wheat
would be a scare article in Kansas
Other dispatches told of many dead
/ fields of winter wheat in the south
west and of numerous other fields
where the crop could only be saved
| by perfect weather for the remand
er of the season. Nevertheless re-
ports that snow was falling at sew
eral places in Kansas. furnishing
moisture and protection to the crop
/ led some venturesome deslers tC
take TO the selling side of the mar
/ ket here during the middle of the
da- and to ease the market down q
little as compared with the open
ling. Nervousness, however, on the
part of the majority of the traders
in the wheat pit and elsewhere or
the exchange floor was still very
apparent